Lee House With Attached Stables And Barn And Adjoining Garden Walls To West And East

Lee House with Attached Stables and Barn

Lee House is a large house of 18th-century date, substantially remodelled in the early 19th century, with earlier fabric probably dating from the 16th century contained within a small range projecting to the east. The main facade is stucco over rubble stone. Attached to the house are a stable block to the right and a barn to the left, both constructed in squared stone built to courses with gables of rubble stone. These long wings project at right angles to the main house, forming a large three-sided courtyard with terraced ground on the fourth side. Slate roofs throughout are punctuated by pairs of brick stacks at each end of the main block and two offset brick stacks to the rear. Domestic quarters extend around into the first bays of the projecting wings, marked by brick stacks. The building is two storeys in height.

The main block features a stone parapet and unmoulded cornice. At first-floor level are five bays of 15-pane tilting windows, dating to around 1980. The centrepiece is a projecting classical porch of paired stone pilasters, cornice and parapet, surmounted by a seated animal sculpture which may not be contemporary. The porch is flanked by a pair of three-quarter glazed entrance doors. On either side of the porch are two tripartite original timber sash windows with six panes to the upper sash and nine panes to the lower sash with glazing bars in matching pattern. These have single-pane-wide side lights and recessed segmental heads.

The projecting wing to the right contains a single opening with timber sashes of six panes per sash, with two further openings similarly sashed below set within brick surrounds. The stables proper have small three-light windows, one on each side of a round-headed doorway with timber door. To the right, beneath the eaves, is a two-light timber window on each side with four panes in brick reveals. The rear of the barn has a slated canopy over large modern double doors. Each projecting gable has a coped parapet with kneelers. A large central segmental-headed opening, now blocked, contains timber sashes with glazing bars of six panes per sash on the barn gable. Above are two square-headed openings, blocked with sills. On the stable range, the corresponding openings contain 15-pane tilting windows dating to around 1980 which have broken through the original stonework. In the gable apexes are round-headed recesses with sills; that on the stable range has been modified for a flag pole and flag raising. Small apex finials crown each gable. A sundial is mounted high on the stable gable.

To the rear of the stable, the main range connects with the earlier fabric projecting eastwards, where two principals with short curved feet survive. On the south side of the projecting wing is an old square-headed doorway into the present kitchen, probably reset, featuring a heavily moulded architrave and ancient door complete. On the north side, the projection is joined by outbuildings to an outshut running from the main range, forming a small rear courtyard. Here, on the north side, is a reset datestone initialled FM:MW and dated 1581. On the south side is an 18th-century 15-paned timber half-glazed door.

Interior

The principal room displays a classical-style chimneypiece at the west end, probably of late 19th-century date, featuring paired slender reeded colonettes with horses-head capitals and entablature above, with a bracketed mantle below. A 19th-century cast iron fireplace with matching festoon pattern accompanies it. A further fireplace in the north wall has an early 19th-century surround with classical figures in the capitals on either side of a mythological scene. Two ornate plaster ceilings, probably contemporary with these features, are rectangular and panelled to the west end, and circular with an encircling border of panels and small rose to the other.

In the room at the extreme west end of the main range, a gallery is said to include altar rails from Pilton Church.