Wiscombe Park

SY 19 SE SOUTHLEIGH

5/130 Wiscombe Park - 22.2.55 - II* Country house. 1826 by J. Power of Colyton with some internal modernisation of circa 1880. Plastered local stone rubble with Beerstone ashlar detail; stone rubble stacks with Beerstone ashlar octagonal divided chimneyshafts and moulded coping; slate roof. Plan: U-plan building. The main block faces south-east. It is double depth under parallel roofs. In the centre is a large entrance hall and main staircase to rear. The principal rooms are those to left with the large principal parlour on the front. To right is the dining room with the kitchen behind and behind that a service wing projects at right angles. A large billiard room projects at right angles to rear of the left end with a conservatory on the outer (south-western) side. Most of the rooms are heated by a series of axial and gable-end stacks. Mostly 2 storeys with attics; the billiard room is single storey. Gothick style. Exterior: symmetrical 5-window front. The tall windows are 2-lights with cusped cinquefoil heads under Tudor-style hoodmoulds. They contain narrow sash windows, the first floor ones with glazing bars. The central doorway contains double doors with Gothick panelling under a 2-centred arch fanlight with Y-tracery glazing bars. The porch is Beerstone ashlar. Its gabled roof is supported on pairs of clustered pilaster columns with moulded caps under a frieze of quatrefoil panels. The coping is embattled, there is an apex cross and the arch is cusped. Each end corner of the main block has set back buttresses with weathered offsets. There is a Beerstone ashlar parapet with Gothic pinnacles each end. There is a similar parapet to rear of the main block and round the billiard room block. Both front block roofs are gable-ended with coping and at the front there are 3 gabled dormers with shaped bargeboards. The left end of the main block has a 3-window front of a similar Gothic windows to the front. The billiard room block has a semi-octagonal end and is lit mostly through a cupola. The conservatory has been partly rebuilt but its tile floor is C19. At the back of the main block is a large arch-headed window lighting the stairs. It contains a kind of early Decorated style tracery and contains stained glass. The rear service block is unembellished and its windows are mostly plain 16-pane sashes. Interior: contains a great deal of original and late C19 joinery and other detail. The stair hall is most impressive lit through the large stained glass window. The large open well stair has an open string, slender turned balusters and curtail step. The front parlour contains a large and ornate chimneypiece of Italian marble featuring carved heads representing the Seasons and it is complete with brass lamp holders. This chimneypiece was exhibited in the Great Exhibition of 1851 according to the owner. Wiscombe is a Domesday manor and belonged to the Bonvill family in the C13. Source: Devon SMR.

Listing NGR: SY1862593057