Chelvey Court And Bridge To The East And 2 Outbuildings To The South West

Chelvey Court and Bridge to the East and 2 Outbuildings to the South West

Large manor house built circa 1618 to 1660 for Edward and John Tynte, substantially altered in 1805 when the south part was demolished. The building is constructed in coursed rubble with freestone dressings and has a pantiled roof, hipped at the south end behind a coped parapet.

The house is arranged on an L-plan with a north wing, rising to 3 storeys with attics. The east elevation has 4 bays with 2-light casement windows and French windows on the ground floor. A large central buttress with offsets (dating from 1805) divides this elevation. To the left of the buttress on the ground floor sits a panelled door in a chamfered surround with a segmental head and a moulded cornice on brackets.

The most elaborate feature is a projecting square ashlar porch on the first floor at the far left. This porch is ornately decorated in mannerist style: it has an elaborate openwork balustrade, a panelled door in a moulded surround with imposts and a depressed 4-centred head, and a frieze of roses. One twisted column survives to the left. Above is an open segmental pediment containing the arms of John Tynte on a cartouche, flanked by bunches of fruit and framed by tapering pilasters. The porch is reached by a single arched rubble bridge approximately 3 to 4 yards long.

The north elevation is irregular, featuring 2 gables and a mixture of single, 2- and 3-light casement windows with ovolo moulded mullions set beneath dripmoulds. The west elevation is equally irregular, presenting 5 bays with 2- and 3-light casement and cross windows (some blocked) similarly detailed with ovolo moulded mullions, surrounds, dripmoulds and relieving arches.

The interior retains substantial fragments of 17th-century panelling and doors throughout. The ground floor rear living room (formerly a kitchen) features a panelled fire surround with a 6-row spit rack above it; against the south wall stands a bench table with a moulded cornice resting on chamfered square uprights. The central front room on the ground floor contains a moulded ashlar fire surround with a 4-centred head and an arched ashlar doorway with a keystone and imposts, accompanied by a large studded and panelled door.

On the first floor, the inner door is panelled with a moulded surround and 4-centred head. The Blue Room at the centre east features grained and painted panelling with bead and reel edging retaining traces of gilding. Its large painted ashlar fireplace has a 4-centred head, a frieze of strapwork with lozenges within squares and circles, a dentilled cornice on brackets, and an overmantel bearing the Tynte and Gorges arms. To the north of the Blue Room is a bedroom with panelled window surrounds, now overpainted, a central oval ceiling panel embellished with foliage and painted and gilded work, and an ashlar fireplace with a moulded surround and 4-centred head. The top floor contains 2 further similar fireplaces, some panelled doors, and a coved cornice in one room.

A large open well staircase rises through all 3 floors, featuring turned balusters, a moulded closed string, moulded handrails, and panelled newel posts with ball finials. The staircase ceiling displays a large plaster pendant ornamented with foliage and fruit, surrounded by a ribbed rosette with flower and thistle motifs.

To the south-west stand 2 outbuildings: the remains of a square rubble tower with a single light window in a moulded surround, and an adjoining building with a chamfered doorway with a segmental head under a dripstone in its gable end.