Siston Court

Siston Court is a very large house of late 16th-century origin, substantially enlarged and embellished in the 17th century. A late 16th-century house on this site is minutely described in an inventory of circa 1625, which probably forms the core of the present building. The house underwent mid-20th-century internal alterations for subdivision into flats.

The building stands in grounds at the edge of Siston Park and is constructed of rubble with pantile roofs. It is roughly E-shaped on plan, enclosing three sides of a gravelled forecourt. The house is two storeys with attics.

The front elevation features three gables to the centre block and three to each wing, with side wings and side gables facing forward. All gables have moulded copings and stone ball finials. Windows are fairly regularly placed throughout, comprising 2, 3 and 4-light casements with flat heads and moulded stone mullions. Some have transoms, while the taller windows have 2 transoms. All windows have relieving arches. Two octagonal turrets with cupolas occupy each inner angle.

A central single-storey porch contains a later Tudor doorway with heraldic shields in the spandrels. Above the door is a restored 4-light casement with ogee sub-arches. The inside elevation of each wing has three square-headed chamfered doorways. At the east end of each wing on the first floor is a coned niche with shell head, bolection-moulded surround and flat moulded cornice above. The centre door of the south wing has a simple shield over it.

The end elevation of each wing features a 2-storey, 6-light angular bay with crenellated, single transoms and a carved heraldic shield in recessed panels beneath each upper window. At right angles to and abutting each end elevation is a 2-storey wing with central gable and stone-mullioned casement windows.

A moulded plinth is returned and dropped at doorways. Weathered string courses run all round at floor levels. A cornice and ashlar parapet with coping sit between each gable. Tall square ashlar stacks with caps in pairs and quartets are set diagonally, mostly at the rear; some have been repaired in brick.

The interior retains numerous features of interest despite conversion into separate flats. The centre contains a cross-beam ceiling, moulded with pendants and rosettes in panels. The main hall has been subdivided and the great fireplace removed to Addis Ababa. Doors have bolection surrounds.

The original stairwell has a ribbed vaulted plaster ceiling with pendants. The staircase is very unusual and presumably original: it has 2 twisted balusters per tread, with each tread end cut and moulded. Newels have open-cut pendants, with similar ones at halfway marks featuring moulded panels. Twisted balusters cross the landing. The staircase is reached from the hall through a tall arch with sunk-chamfer moulding.

An angled room overlooking the park, added in the mid-19th century, contains a re-sited Jacobean fireplace dated 1616 and an oak chimney piece, probably a reproduction.

The south room of the south-west wing has a Gothick fireplace with sunk ogee lintel and clustered and banded columns.

The south wing contains the former library room on the ground floor, which has a bolection-moulded fireplace with reverse brackets to the mantel piece. The ceiling is panelled with 2 oval wreaths in plaster and crested ornament in the cornice and cross-beam. A good Jacobean staircase with turned balusters and straight string, apparently imported from Cornwall, has been installed in this wing.