Melbury House

Melbury House

A country house in parkland, Melbury House represents an exceptionally significant building that evolved through four centuries of development and embellishment.

The original structure dates to around 1530, when it was built as a quadrangular house for Giles Strangways by the Ham Hill school of masons. The earliest surviving element is the Prospect Tower, a striking feature rising over the centre of the west range. This tower has a square foundation that becomes hexagonal in its upper stages via stone squinches, with octagonal buttressing and finials, a castellated parapet, and a higher hexagonal stair-turret (castellated on the north-west side). The tower features 6-light stone mullions with depressed-arch heads, and was restored in the late 20th century. The early 16th-century west range exhibits gabling and buttressing details of the period, with a continuous string returned round the buttress and over windows. It contains coupled hexagonal stacks on its south face, and 4-light stone mullions either transomed or without transoms.

In around 1692, following the Restoration, Sir Thomas Strangways commissioned Mr Watson to undertake a significant programme of works. The east facade of the house was rebuilt, and the north and south facades were remodelled between the original 16th-century gable-ends. Inner corridors were constructed in the courtyard at this time. The late 17th-century walls are of brick, faced with Ham Hill ashlar (cramped to it) and finished with Portland stone dressings. A tall stack of this period is positioned regularly on the north-east and south roofs: these are square stacks of Ham stone with a fielded panel to each face and rusticated Portland stone quoins and framing, finished with a dentil cornice and chamfered top stone. The 16th-century hexagonal stone stack with zig-zag banding and moulded cornice survives (though reduced) immediately north-east of the prospect tower.

A large rectangular courtyard to the north of the house originally had four ranges, but only the west range now survives.

In 1872, the orangery on the south side was removed. The architect Salvin was commissioned to build a library and a connecting link passage to the mansion at this time. The link-passage is a single storey structure with two windows, each of four 3-centred lights, a string course, and a flat stone parapet. The entrance features a pointed-arch doorway with a plank door. Salvin's library is a substantial single-storey structure with a gabled roof. It contains three windows: canted bays at left and right ground level with 4-light mullion-and-transom windows with elliptical arches, and a 4-light window at the centre. The parapet is decorated with openwork trefoils above a castellated parapet. The interior features an arch-braced hammer-beam roof carried on stone corbels with painted shields, with bays irregularly spaced. Two fireplaces in 16th-century style occupy the back wall.

Between 1884 and 1885, G Devey undertook a great enlargement of the house to the west. This work included an extensive service range, a servants' courtyard, and visitor accommodation in a south-west tower. The tower rises four storeys with windows in canted and straight bays, each featuring 4-light mullioned-and-transomed lights with iron casements without lead lights. A half-octagonal stair-turret occupies the north-east angle, with 2-light elliptical-headed windows under labels. A joining range to the right is one storey, containing three windows with transomed mullions and separate returned labels under a castellated parapet gabled at the centre. The service range returns to the north.

The servants' coach yard, immediately north-west of the mansion, was created by Devey using Tudor motifs. The kitchen in the south range is notable for a large canted bay and displays an armorial shield-of-arms with the motto "Faire Sans Dire". Accommodation in the west range is 2½ storeys with seven windows of the same transomed elliptical-arched stone mullion design, each with separate labels. One storey on the north side abuts the stables, and 2 storeys on the east side (now the Butler's flat). An entrance with a depressed-arch head is positioned at left ground. The carriage-entrance features wide 4-centred archways with fleurons in the hollows, and a rib-vaulted roof carried on stone corbels and bosses.

The main facade to the north elevation of the mansion presents 2½ storeys over 9 bays. The outer 2 bays at each end are positioned under the 16th-century gables, which feature half-octagonal buttressing and barley-sugar finials, cornices, and bell-tops. The 5 central bays are executed in rusticated Ham stone, with Portland stone pedestals, strings, Ionic pilasters, and Corinthian pilasters above. A segmental pediment crowns the centre bay with a dentil cornice and stone cartouches. A balustraded stone parapet extends across the facade. The central 5 bays carry sash-windows with thick glazing-bars, whilst the end gables have thin glazing-bars. Five pedimented dormers occupy the centre section, each with sash-windows. The central entrance features an oval window with a foliate stone surround and a 2-leaf panelled-and-glazed door.

The east elevation comprises 2½ storeys over 11 bays with rusticated Portland quoins. The central 5 bays are rusticated, with 3 bays divided by Portland half-columns supporting Roman Doric and Corinthian orders. A pediment surmounts this section, decorated with a stone cartouche. Sash-windows feature Portland stone cills and keystones. A 2-leaf flush-panelled and glazed door is positioned centrally, with a stone cartouche over.

The south elevation employs similar detailing to the north elevation.

The 19th-century entrance to the house, positioned on the main north front (rebuilt by Devey west of the mansion), features a depressed-arch doorway with carved spandrels and a label stopped over. The 2-leaf door is panelled in 17th-century style.

The walls throughout are constructed of rubble stone with Ham Hill ashlar facing (16th century), whilst later extensions employ Ham stone ashlar walls. Roofs are principally Welsh slate, with lead sheeting across flat tops.

Devey's Entrance Hall was converted from a 17th-century kitchen and subsequently converted to a Billiard Room. It is fully panelled with square recess panelling. The room features a cambered wood roof in a pastiche of 17th-century style, with hammer-trusses and independent finials carried on heraldic stone corbels. Evidence of 19th-century kitchens and stores from the Devey period survives.

The building underwent late 20th-century restoration under the direction of Bertram and Fell.