Great House

Great House is the surviving portion of a large Elizabethan house, dating to the late 16th century. It is constructed of stone rubble with freestone dressings and has a slate roof with hipped sections and stone-coped gable ends. The house is arranged on a U-shaped plan with wings extending to the northwest and southwest. It is two storeys high. The southeast garden front features five three-light ovolo-moulded stone mullion windows on the first floor, with a moulded string course at sill level; these are believed to have originally been part of a long gallery. A passageway provides access to the rear of the property. The northwest wing has a hipped roof and pigeon holes on the first floor. The south elevation of the southwest wing presents a façade of chequered knapped flintwork on the first floor, with a moulded string course at floor level. This elevation is symmetrically arranged with three bays, each featuring a moulded three-light stone mullion window with leaded panes and dripmoulds. A central first-floor window has a single light with a cusped head. Ashlar chimney stacks are topped with moulded caps. In the angle of the southwest wing is a gabled feature with a window containing two pointed arch lights, alongside a moulded wooden door frame with a cambered head. Inside, three 16th-century Tudor-arched stone chimneypieces are present. A northeast first-floor room contains a bolection-moulded chimneypiece with moulded plaster, displaying Stuart arms above. Local tradition suggests the Duke of Monmouth stayed at the house, and the Stuart arms were displayed to show loyalty to the monarch. The house was the former seat of the Yonge family and was built by John Yonge, an eminent Elizabethan merchant. His son, Walter Yonge (1579-1649), resided at Great House and composed much of his diary (1604-28) while living there; this diary was published by the Camden Society in 1848.