Porch House

PORCH HOUSE

House, circa 1480, restored 1872–76 by E. Christian. Timber-frame construction with stone slate roofs and ashlar chimney stacks. The building forms a remarkable unified design of a single build, comprising a single-storey central great hall flanked by two-storey gabled cross wings, with a two-storey gabled porch projecting from the south cross wing and a rear wing extending back from the north cross wing.

The structure has close-studded framing on an ashlar plinth. The cross wings are flush with the main range but jettied at first-floor level, with the jetties aligned with the mid-rail of the hall. A moulded sill-course is continued under the eaves cove of the hall. Finely carved bargeboards adorn the wings and porch, one being a 19th-century renewal, and ball finials crown the wings and hips of the main roof.

The hall features a projecting full-height timber bay to the left with traceried leaded lights and inserted stained glass. A moulded transom and brattished cornice run across the front with five-light windows; the upper lights are restorations, as possibly is the tracery of the lower lights. To the right is close studding and deep eaves cove. The cross wings have brackets on moulded shafts under the jetties, moulded bressumers, and cambered tie-beams and collars. The left wing has a ground-floor restored oriel of three pairs of traceried leaded lights and a first-floor 1:2:1 light canted oriel with moulded transom and brattished cornice, supported on a moulded bracket. An ashlar side-wall stack is flanked by 19th-century timber oriels. The right cross wing has a porch projecting to the left and, to the right, a timber oriel dated G.R. 1874 at first-floor level, with a ground-floor restored four-light leaded window with traceried heads below. The porch is jettied on three sides with a first-floor oriel similarly dated G.R. 1874. The ground floor has a Tudor-arched restored entry and three-light 19th-century traceried openings to the sides, with a 19th-century Tudor-arched studded plank inner door retaining an original small pointed wicket.

The rear elevation shows a flush gable to the south cross wing, close-studded rear wall to the hall, and a two-bay rear wing to the north cross wing, jettied on its south front with tension bracing and a two-window range with door to the left. An 19th-century ashlar stack rises at the east end. To the south of the original house is a circa 1874 kitchen range with ashlar base, a band of timber-mullion windows under the eaves, and a stone slate roof with high brick stack. A picturesque dormer has been removed from the road front. The garden front has a projecting gable with half-timbering over a window band.

The interior contains a two-bay great hall with a hammer-beam centre truss and three tiers of windbracing, with a moulded wall-plate. The upper end parlour has a massive stone fireplace with a four-centred arch and moulded shelf, and a windbraced roof. The rear wing has massive cross-beams to the ceiling and a 19th-century fireplace matching the parlour fireplace. During the 1870s restoration, glass mosaic floors were inserted, along with some fine encaustic floor tiles at the lower end. 15th to 17th-century stained glass in the hall was restored from fragments given by Lord Leven, of unknown provenance.

Porch House was probably built for the Bishops of Salisbury, who held the Manor of Potterne. In 1508 it was leased to W. Trymnell, and the Trymnell family held the house in the 17th century. During the 18th century it served as a public house called the Pack Horse and was subdivided into cottages, possibly in 1847 when a plaque records repairs by H.S. Olivier of the Manor House, Potterne. In 1870, George Richmond R.A. (1809–96) purchased the house, reputedly on the recommendation of Samuel Palmer, and restored it with exemplary care, advised partly by E. Christian and mostly by Christian's assistant Purday. A drawing of 1810 by J. Buckler is held in the Devizes Museum.