Keevil Manor With Attached Stables

Manor house built around 1580 for Thomas Lambert, with a porch added in 1611 and additions made in 1912 for General Dixon. The building is constructed in limestone ashlar on the front, with rendered rubble stone to the returns, and features a tiled gabled roof with ashlar stacks.

The south front is two storeys with an attic, presenting five windows. A central two-storey porch, added in 1611, contains a Tudor-arched doorway with shell-headed niches within, Tuscan columns and entablature to both storeys, and a three-light mullioned and transomed casement to the first floor with small trefoil-headed lights to the sides. Ground floor windows on either side of the porch are a cross window and three-light mullioned and transomed casements, with a moulded lintel string course. The first floor has two three-light mullioned and transomed casements flanking the porch. Four attic gables feature three-light mullioned casements with hoodmoulds and saddleback coping with finials. All windows throughout have hollow-chamfered reveals.

The left return has two Tudor-arched doorways (the right one blocked, the left retaining a ledged door), two three-light mullioned and transomed casements, one cross window and one two-light mullioned casement, with string courses. The first floor contains three three-light mullioned and transomed casements, and three attic gables with windows matching the front elevation. The right return has a Tudor-arched ledged door positioned right of centre, three-light mullioned and transomed windows, cross windows or mullioned casements, and triple attic gables as on the left return.

A rear central courtyard contains early twentieth-century additions, with mullioned and transomed casements to the original flanking wings.

The interior preserves exceptionally rich fittings. A screens passage entered from the south entrance contains a fine carved screen with two round arches, strapwork decoration, and egg and dart pilasters. The hall to the right features full panelling with Ionic pilasters, arched panels and a richly-carved frieze and cornice, along with a Tudor-arched stone fireplace in a lateral position. The ceiling contains a central plaster panel with foliage decoration. The library to the left of the entrance has linenfold panelling. The south west room retains eighteenth-century full panelling. The north east room displays a fine plaster ceiling with thin-ribbed geometric design incorporating floral motifs and fleur de lis, together with a stone fireplace. The west entrance hall has a moulded cross-beamed ceiling. Several richly-carved doors with four panels and cock's head hinges are present throughout.

The stairs from ground floor to attics feature round newels and pierced splat balusters, whilst the rear stairs have turned balusters to the landings. The north east bedroom retains an original plaster ceiling similar to the room below, with an eared fireplace surround featuring floral drops, scrolled frieze and cornice.

Attached to the west is a single-storey service range, altered around 1912 with leaded casements and gabled dormers. A square rubble stone water tower, dated 1912, adjoins this with lancets, a Tudor-arched doorway and parapet. Attached to the water tower is a former seventeenth or eighteenth-century stables building, also altered but retaining a moulded square doorway.

The house was built for the Lamberts and owned by the Beach family from the seventeenth century into the early twentieth century, representing a fine example of a Wiltshire manor house of exceptional architectural and decorative quality. A group of impressive yew trees in the garden, known as The Twelve Apostles, completes the setting.