Nash Court, Manor House And Nash Lodge

Nash Court, Manor House and Nash Lodge

This is a two-storey building with attics, constructed of coursed stone with ashlar dressings and a slate roof. It is distinguished by a number of tall ridge and gable chimneystacks of red brick.

The plan comprises a southern hall range running north-east to south-west, with a large cross-wing at the eastern end. Behind the hall range runs the former service range. The property is associated with boundary walls, a walled garden and outbuildings, though these are not considered of special interest.

The south elevation, as recorded in 1951, consists of a three-bay range with a further projecting bay to the east end. The main range features a single-storey projecting porch positioned right of centre, containing a four-centred arched doorway with hood mould and carved decoration to the spandrels, dating from 1885. This doorway is flanked by mullioned and transomed windows with arched top-lights; similar windows appear on the first floor, all with hood moulds. The attic is lit by three gabled dormers housing timber casements. The projecting bay to the right contains a large single-storey bay window at ground floor level with a five-light mullioned and transomed window, and three-light mullioned windows to the first and attic floors.

The eastern wing, which retains some earlier fabric, has gabled projecting wings and a central porch to the north-east elevation arranged in largely symmetrical fashion. Both projecting bays have two single-light windows to the ground floor and a single two-light window to each of the first and attic floors. Above the entrance rises a central, narrow projecting bay from the first floor, with windows to the first and attic floors, surmounted by a bell tower with a sweeping pyramidal roof. The windows are largely flat-headed with mullioned sashes, set below stone drip moulds.

Internally, a southern room in the east wing contains a fireplace dating from circa 1600, understood to have been relocated here circa 1911-18; it may have been imported or brought from elsewhere in the house. The morning room at the south end of the east wing has a panelled ceiling probably dating to circa 1885 and an elaborate chimneypiece with herms and strapwork from the later 19th or early 20th century. A drawing room at the west end of the former hall range, as recorded in 1951, features late 18th or early 19th century pine panelling with moulded skirtings, dado rail and ceiling cornice. Various first-floor bedrooms retain late 17th century oak panelling to dado height, reputedly remodelled from the former screens dividing the 16th or 17th century hall from the cross-passage. Another bedroom contains re-sited 18th century pine panelling. An earlier staircase was removed during the 1880s remodelling, when a dining room was created from the former stair hall and adjacent butler's pantry. A new stair, reportedly made from the timbers of the merchant ship Victory, was inserted and remained in place in 1951.