Boyton Manor

Boyton Manor is a country house dating from 1618, originally built for Thomas Lambert, with the addition of 1930s staff accommodation. The house is constructed of rendered limestone, with a tiled triple-gabled roof and diagonally-set ashlar stacks featuring moulded cappings. It is square in plan, and is two storeys and an attic with five windows on the front elevation. A central two-storey porch has a square-headed moulded doorcase with a half-glazed door and Ionic columns supporting an entablature topped with stone urns. The upper storey of the porch features Corinthian pilasters to its entablature and a three-light transomed and mullioned casement window. The ground and first floors on either side of the porch contain cross windows and three-light mullioned and transomed casements. Lintel string courses run horizontally across the front. Three attic gables each have a three-light ovolo-mullioned casement with a hood mould, saddleback coping, and ball finials. The garden front, to the left return, has a central half-glazed door within a large pilastered porch with a broken segmental pediment, dating from around 1700. Flanking the door are three-light mullioned and transomed casements. The first floor has a cross window above the door, with mullioned and transomed casements either side, under lintel string courses. The three attic gables mirror the front, each featuring a three-light ovolo-mullioned casement with hood mould, saddleback coping, and lead rainwater heads dated 1935. The right return presents a two-storey projecting stair bay with a mullioned and transomed casement to the left, with a ground-floor two-light ovolo-mullioned casement, two mullioned and transomed casements, and a later 20th-century doorcase insertion. The first floor has a cross window and two mullioned and transomed casements; the attic gables are consistent with the front. The rear elevation features three three-light mullioned and transomed casements on both the ground and first floors, with attic gables matching the front. The interior was inaccessible during a 1985 survey, but is reported to retain original Jacobean features. The original open well staircase on the north side of the house has carved splat balusters and a closed string, while the staircase on the south side has barley sugar balusters and a high-quality plaster ceiling with garlands in the coving. Later staircase alterations and a morning room with walnut panelling were made around 1700 for Edmund Lambert. A principal room on the first floor, situated above the entrance hall and incorporating the upper storey of the porch, has good oak wainscot panelling with fluted pilasters, strapwork frieze, a plaster ceiling with thin ribs, and a stone square moulded fireplace with Doric columns to a dentilled entablature. First-floor bedrooms similarly feature wainscot panelling and panelled oak doors. Early 20th-century two-storey service accommodation is arranged around a square courtyard and attached to the north-east corner of the main house. This section is rendered with a hipped tiled roof, stone ovolo-mullioned casements to the south side, and leaded casements to the north side and courtyard.