The Manor House And Attached Garden Wall

The Manor House and Attached Garden Wall

A house dating to around 1700, with a rear wing and left extension added around 1780, followed by alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries. Located on the south-west side of Walton Street in Walton-in-Gordano.

The main building is constructed of sandstone rubble with limestone dressings, rendered except for the front and right return. The roof is slate with ridge and gable stacks. The structure is two and a half storeys with eight windows, all of which are 2-light casements with Gothic leaded octagonal cames and decorative catches (20th-century replacements) set beneath large stone lintels. A lintel string runs over the ground floor windows. The entrance is a 20th-century limestone Doric porch with modillion cornice, parapet and blocking course.

Heavy quoins rise to first floor level, indicating 18th-century alterations. Three hipped dormers, each containing a 2-light casement with similar glazing, break the roofline. A lower two-storey addition with hipped roof behind parapet and coping is attached to the left and right, both joined with straight joints. The right addition features a similar large 2-light casement, while the left is rendered with 3-light 20th-century casements at ground and first floors.

An attached rubble garden wall extends about 3 metres high and 15 metres along the front left, with a segmental-headed opening that screens the site of former domestic buildings, now demolished.

A two-storey 18th-century wing attached to the left has a hipped roof and three windows, all 20th-century 2-light casements, with a 3-light casement at ground floor left and a glazed door to the right. The left return of this wing has two sashes at ground floor and a sash with pointed arch beneath the eaves. A further two-storey addition to the left also features a hipped roof behind parapet and coping, with an 8-pane sash at ground floor and plate-glass sash at first floor.

At the right return, the gable end of the main range shows a line of roof-raising. An oriel at first floor contains a sash to the front and 8-pane sashes to each side. A further addition built around the corner of the main range includes a 2-light casement at upper ground floor and a 19th-century cross window. Two lean-tos to the right have 4-pane lights.

The two-storey rear wing has a sash in an exposed box off-centre at first floor and a large external stack to the right. The rear of the main range formerly had a single-storey addition which was raised in 1969 to create a first-floor corridor. Including the addition to the right, the rear elevation has seven windows, all sashes (some 20th-century). The ground floor's third window from the left has a 20th-century bay window with two 9-pane sashes to its left. Set in the angle to the rear wing is a taller two-storey block with a half-glazed door incorporating Gothic glazing bars and a sash above.

The inner side of the rear wing contains four windows, all sashes in exposed boxes. The second window from the left has a 20th-century French window. The wing has a cornice, parapet and coping, with a blind window at first floor on its rear elevation.

Interior features include a central room now serving as the entrance hall, containing a fireplace with an eared shell and dart surround. Recesses on each side of the fireplace contain cupboards with shaped shelves, one of which is a 20th-century copy. The room has boxed beams, and the ceiling height of this room and the room to the right has been raised. The central room leads to a rear 18th-century staircase hall with an open-well stair featuring twisted balusters.

The roof over the main range probably dates to the 18th century but incorporates earlier timbers. One truss, probably re-set, has principal rafters and collar, with one row of purlins.

A drawing by S.H. Grimm in the British Museum, dated 1788 and labelled as Sir John Durbin's house in Walton, shows an earlier porch with a pediment, indicating the current porch is a later replacement.