Churston Court

Churston Court is a large house, now a hotel, located in Churston Ferrers. The basic fabric may be late medieval, with the building probably dating from the mid or late 16th century, remodelled in the early 17th century and again in the late 17th century. Additions were made in the 18th and 19th centuries, with a substantial addition constructed to the rear in 1985–7.

The house has solid rendered walls and a slated roof. There are two red sandstone ashlar chimneys with tapered caps positioned on the ridge. The left gable-end carries a large old rendered chimney with red sandstone mouldings, with another chimney to its rear. A 19th-century rendered chimney stands on the right gable-end. A cottage attached to the left end of the building features a front gable-end chimney of red brick, partly rendered, with the chimney-breast projecting on corbels. The rear wing has a rendered gable-chimney with off-sets and a tapered cap.

The plan is basically a 3-room arrangement with cross-passage, except that the cross-passage leads to a 16th-century stair turret at the rear. A gabled wing sits in front of the junction of the hall and inner room. The lower room appears to have functioned as a parlour in the late 17th century and contains a chimney in its rear wall. The hall has a chimney at its upper end, and the inner room (now kitchen) has a gable-end chimney. In front of the inner room is an addition with a back staircase, probably dating to the late 17th century. A short enclosed passage links the inner room to the cottage, a former outbuilding positioned at right-angles to the frontage.

Externally, the main building is two storeys, rising to a garret in the late 17th century, while the cottage is single-storeyed. The front elevation is 7 windows wide with a further window in the cottage. The front doorway has a chamfered, round-headed surround of painted stone. Except for the window above the doorway and those in the additions, all front windows have painted stone mullions. In the main range, the windows have four lights with king-mullions; the ordinary mullions are hollow-moulded and the king-mullions ovolo-moulded, except in the left ground-storey window where the king-mullion is ogee-moulded. This window, the one to its right, and the second upper-storey window from the right each have an old metal casement. The wing features a 2-light painted stone-mullioned window in each storey and a matching 3-light window in the upper storey of the right-hand side; the mullions are hollow-moulded and upper-storey windows have hoodmoulds. The ground-storey window has an old metal casement. The gable is decorated with a pair of plaster S-scrolls and a fleur-de-lys. The addition to the left has a 2-light wood casement window in each storey, with the upper-storey window possibly dating to the late 17th century. The rear wall has a 3-light stone-mullioned stair window with hollow-moulded mullions, and elsewhere there are a window with 6-paned sashes and some small-paned wood casements.

Interior

The cross-passage and right-hand ground-storey room originally had raised bolection-moulded panelling, now reconstructed with salvaged panelling on modern studwork. The room features panelled shutters and a chamfered plastered ceiling with beams. A Tudor-style carved stone chimneypiece, probably 19th century or later, is decorated with an iron fire-back. Flanking the chimneypiece are paired wooden Ionic columns, possibly old, supporting a wooden lintel carved with lion heads.

An open-well late 17th-century wood staircase rises to the garret, with its bottom flight reinstated to match the original. It has closed pulvinated strings, twisted balusters, square newels with ball-finials and turned pendants, and a dado of bolection-moulded panelling.

The hall, to the left of the cross-passage, has an old Tudor-arched moulded fireplace of red sandstone with an elaborate 19th-century wood surround featuring detached columns. In front of it stands an oddly positioned screen, probably 19th century, originally with four twisted wood columns and composite capitals, decorated with tendrils of foliage. The room has panelled shutters. A late 17th-century door with three bolection-moulded panels is found in the corridor behind this room. Between the inner room and wing is a stone doorway with a pointed arch and quarter-round mouldings—late medieval, possibly surviving from an early stair-turret—with an 18th or 19th-century plank door fitted with strap-hinges.

The addition contains a possibly late 17th-century straight-flight wooden stair with turned balusters. In the upper storey, the two rooms to the right of the staircase, now sub-divided, have raised bolection-moulded panelling. Several doors feature raised-and-fielded, one-fillet, ovolo-moulded panels with brass catches.

The roof of the main range, inspected only over the hall, lower room and staircase, has unblackened jointed-cruck trusses with cranked collars, threaded purlins and a ridge.

Historical context

Churston Court belonged to the Yarde family from the 15th to 18th centuries. They were succeeded by the Bullers, who, however, lived at Lupton House, Churston Ferrers. In 1850 White's Directory records that the eldest son of Sir J.B.Y. Buller lived at the house, described as "the ancient seat of the Yardes, which has lately been modernised, and has tasteful grounds." Sir John Buller became Lord Churston in 1858. His descendant sold the house in 1967.