Bonham Cottage Bonham House

Bonham House and Bonham Cottage

A Roman Catholic chapel, house, and cottage now divided into two houses, dating from the 14th century with 16th-century additions. The building was altered in the 18th century, late 19th century, and 1950s. It is constructed of rubble stone with a tiled roof featuring coped verges to the main range. The 16th-century range projecting to the front is partly timber-framed with a stone slate roof and stone stacks.

The main chapel and house range runs east under one roof, with a 4-bay 16th-century range on a different axis to the west. The principal front faces south and is two storeys with five windows. The former chapel to the right has three single leaded windows to the ground floor and three pointed 2-light leaded windows with Y-tracery above. The pair on the right are stone, while the left one is wooden. The domestic section to the left features a planked door and a 6-light 1950s mullioned casement on the ground floor, with 4-light and 3-light 1950s steel leaded casements to the first floor.

A hipped attic dormer and 20th-century bellcote with pointed openings are set into the roof. An inserted stack is placed at the right gable end, which has a coped verge with a cross finial. The right return contains a blocked opening with a moulded pointed arch, possibly 14th century. The rear of this range has an 18th-century pointed 2-light window with Y-tracery to the left and a 14th-century cusped lancet to the right.

The projecting wing includes a 20th-century lean-to stone porch on its side with a reset corbel and fragment of saddleback coping above. The north gable has 20th-century casements and a round-arched blocked opening. To the right of the wing, the main range continues with a lateral gabled stack and a 20th-century two-storey addition.

The 16th-century range to the west, partly Bonham Cottage, has an original north-facing front featuring a rendered first-floor timber-framed jetty over a rubble stone ground floor. A lean-to porch with a plank door is placed to the left, with a 3-light casement and 16th-century arched light to the right. The jetty is carried on timber brackets with stone corbels and has scalloped plaster to its lower edge, with single-light, 2-light, and fixed light windows above. The south-facing rear of this range has lean-to extensions attached to the ground floor and 4-light and 2-light first-floor casements. The east gable end has a coped verge and a large stone stack with offsets.

The interior was considerably remodelled in the 1950s. The former chapel retains a rebuilt roof and inserted stack. A 20th-century inserted west gallery displays the arms of the Stourton family. A piscina survives on the north wall within a cupboard at the west end.

The domestic part of the main range features a late 16th-century plaster ceiling with curvilinear thin ribs and moulded pellets, probably reset. The first floor has early 19th-century six-panelled doors and a grey marble fireplace surround with paterae, beneath a collar truss roof. Three bays of the 16th-century range form Bonham Cottage, with one bay in Bonham House. The interior includes an exposed jetty within a lean-to on the south side. The west room has deep chamfered beams with stepped stops to the compartmental ceiling and an open fireplace with a chamfered lintel on stone jambs. Cross frame trusses are exposed on the first floor, featuring tie-beams and braces with chamfered soffits and jowled main posts.

The Lords of Stourton lived here from the 14th century and worshipped in the chapel. The chapel was closed for worship during the 1940s, and the entire building was subsequently remodelled by the 22nd Baron of Stourton.