Hudscott House

Hudscott House

House, a seat of the Rolle family in the 18th and 19th centuries. No clear visible features survive to date the house before the early 17th century, but its complex plan would suggest that successive remodellings in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries have very probably obscured considerably earlier fabric. Painted rendered stone rubble and some cob. Slate roof with gable ends. All stacks are rendered: 2 rear lateral stacks to principal range, axial and 2 gable end stacks to front range, one axial stack, one lateral stack with demolished shaft and gable end stack to left-hand rear wing, and 2 axial stacks to right-hand rear service wing.

Plan: Complex multi-phase development has obscured original plan. Principal range consists of main hall with principal room to left, both heated by rear lateral stacks. Direct front entrance into main hall. Narrow room at right end, which may at one time have housed the principal staircase, now forms circulating hall for access into front and rear ranges. Axial passage to rear of hall gives access to the 2 rear wings with 20th century staircase between, which form a 3-sided rear courtyard plan, the right-hand wing housing kitchens and service rooms, left-hand range has single large ground floor room, possibly intended as a dining room. Single storey range of outbuildings on the fourth side. Attached to the right-hand front end of the principal range is a parallel range extending to the right, of 2 principal rooms with cellars below, the left-hand room forming an extension of the main dwelling, the right-hand room with lean-to at the right gable end now used for holiday accommodation. Oblique access from this room into a small gable-ended building which may well have once served as a chapel and which is attached to the front right end of this second range, and extends beyond it to the right. Two storeys.

Principal range has 8-window range, all early 19th century 12-paned hornless sashes. Ground floor has canted bay window with 16-pane central sash and 12-pane side sashes to left and three 12-pane sashes to right of early 19th century Tuscan porch with enclosed partially glazed sides and front door of 2 leaves, with margin glazing bars to the upper part. 19th century inner door has 2 panelled base, upper part glazed with blind fanlight and conceals behind it a heavy studded early 17th century plank door. Attached range to front right end has large 2 storey canted bay window with 12-paned sashes. Probable former chapel to right end has a single light and a 2-light chamfered stone mullion window, the right-hand window retaining late 17th/early 18th century iron casements with decorative wrought iron latches. The leaded lights are 20th century replacements; formerly these are believed to have contained stained glass. Attached to the left gable end of the principal range is a 19th century glass conservatory with iron spike finial at the gable end and gabled front entrance doorway. Timber glazing bars and decorative cast iron brackets intact.

Interior: High quality interior incorporating features of several phases from the 17th century onwards. Fine 17th century decorative plasterwork overmantel to hall chimneypiece with Ionic baluster style colonnettes flanking elaborate strapwork cartouche with central achievement and armorial bearings of Lovering and Dodderidge family. 17th century raised and fielded dado panelling, semi-circular arched door surrounds and window seats. Boxed in intersecting ceiling beams supported at upper end of hall by 2 Tuscan columns. Principal room to left of hall has early 19th century reeded architraves to doors and bay window, and decorative moulded plaster cornice. 20th century principal staircase to rear of hall in 18th century style. 2 17th century doorways with chamfered surrounds into right-hand rear service wing. Rear left-hand wing has boxed in intersecting ceiling beams and bolection moulded chimneypiece. The left-hand room of the parallel front range retains some 17th century dado panelling. The presumed chapel has plain plastered internal walls and barrel roof. 2 principal chambers to each end of the main range have coved ceilings with early 19th century neo-Classical repeating plasterwork design around the coving to the left end chamber, that to right end chamber appears to have been replaced with embossed paper. The 18th and early 19th century doors which survive intact throughout are of a high quality, and the principal chambers retain their integral cupboards, window benches and chimneypieces. Roof structure over principal range appears to be 18th century with wide-span pegged trusses with no sign of smoke-blackening. The roof over the attached front range was not inspected.

Hudscott is a house of considerable interest, its modest size belying the fact that it was in the 18th and 19th centuries a seat of the Rolle family, although not the principal seat. In the late 17th century, under the occupation of the Lovering family, it became a refuge for ejected Presbyterian ministers.