Chilloman House Including Front Garden Walls

Chilloman House Including Front Garden Walls

A small country house dating to circa 1840, constructed in Tudor Gothic style, with fragmentary ruins of a 16th-century house adjoining to the north-east. The building stands as a two-storey structure with attics and is arranged on an L-plan, with the main block facing south-east.

Exterior Construction and Materials

The front is built of large coursed blocks of grey-coloured chert ashlar, slightly rock-faced, while the remainder uses snecked chert with Beerstone ashlar detailing. The chimneyshafts are of stone with ashlar triple diagonals set diagonally. The roof is covered with slate, gable-ended with shaped kneelers and coping, topped with a low parapet and coping. A stringcourse runs at eaves level and is carried around the bay gables.

Front Elevation

The front presents a tall symmetrical composition of three windows. The outer bays project forward a short distance from the main front. At ground floor level are tall four-light hollow-chamfered mullion-and-transom windows beneath a continuous hoodmould that extends around the porch. First floor windows are three-light with hoodmoulds. Each outer bay is gabled and contains a single light attic window. All windows contain iron frames holding rectangular panes of glass.

The central doorway is a Tudor arch containing a six-panel door with fanlight, situated behind a gabled porch with a moulded surround to its outer arch. The passage front doorway is behind a roofless porch of 18th-century brick, including some burnt headers. Adjacent to the porch on the right is a late 16th to early 17th-century Beerstone four-light window with ovolo-moulded mullions.

Plan and Room Arrangement

The house follows a two-room plan with one room on either side of a central cross-passage, which leads back to a rear wing. The right room is the parlour with a gable-end stack; the main stair rises from the back of the passage. The left room is the dining room, also with a gable-end stack. A kitchen projects at right angles to the rear of the left room and contains a large gable-end stack. A lower service block occupies the rear of the kitchen, with an integral dairy and pantry outshot in the angle between the two wings.

Rear and Side Elevations

The outer south-western side of the rear block includes a secondary Tudor arch doorway and a large ovolo-moulded stone mullioned window under a relieving arch. Other sides contain timber casements. The passage rear doorway has an oak doorframe with a broad chamfered surround. The roofless outer walls of the 16th-century hall lie to the right.

Interior

The interior is well preserved and retains nearly all original circa 1840 joinery and detail, much of it in Tudor style. The kitchen fireplace is notably large, constructed of stone with rounded corners and a chamfered surround.

The 16th-Century Remains

Adjoining on the north-east end of the main block are the roofless ruins of the original 16th-century hall, containing the opposing doorways that formerly served a through-passage.

Setting

The front garden is enclosed by a low stone rubble wall. The front gate is flanked by square-section ashlar gate posts with plain projecting cornices and low pyramid caps. Along the right side, the wall ramps up over an arch-headed doorway before meeting the house.