Court House And Garden Wall Adjoining To North East

Court House and Garden Wall

This is a house of 1553, extensively remodelled and enlarged in the late 17th century, with a mid-18th century outshut at the rear and minor late 19th and late 20th century additions. The building is constructed of dressed sandstone, almost of ashlar quality, with sandstone ashlar dressings to openings. The rear is dressed sandstone in alternating deep and shallow courses. The roof is of scantle slate, arranged in two parallel ranges to the right, with hipped ends over projecting wings to the front and over the left-hand stair block, and a catslide over the later outshut to the rear. A weatherboarded 19th-century lean-to outshut at the rear has a corrugated-iron roof. The stacks are of dressed sandstone and date from the 17th century.

The original 16th-century plan consists of a hall with a through passage to the left and an upper room to the right, with an axial stack between the hall and upper room. A two-storey porch serves the passage, and there is a matching two-storey square bay at the right-hand (upper) end. A service room probably formerly existed to the left of the passage, either demolished or incorporated in the late 17th-century addition. The house was floored from the beginning, possibly with a first-floor great chamber. Extensive remodelling in the late 17th century included probable complete reroofing, an addition to the left with an integral end stack, and a short parallel block added to the rear of the right-hand end containing a staircase. An outshut to the rear of the left-hand end may be a mid to late 18th-century addition, as it partly obscures a now-blocked window in the rear wall, though this could be a blocked 16th-century window. Minor late 20th-century alterations include flat-roofed single-storey additions to the left. The building is two storeys and attic.

The exterior features a chamfered plinth to the 16th-century range and a continuous moulded wooden dentil eaves cornice of late 17th-century date. The stacks are also probably of late 17th-century date, with weatherings, string courses and battered caps; the right-hand ridge stack is larger than the left. A late 17th-century bellcote of wood, probably restored, sits on the ridge to the left of the porch with shaped-headed openings and an ogee lead cap with weathervane and bell.

The 16th-century range to the right has a symmetrical front of 1:4:1 bays, the end bays projecting and the centre bays widely spaced because of the stack. The 16th-century square-headed stone windows consist of depressed-arched lights (three-lights to the centre and two lights to the wings) with panelled spandrels, chamfered mullions, moulded reveals and returned hoodmoulds. The windows retain 17th-century leaded lights, including opening casements with original catches.

The entrance to the porch is a moulded Tudor-arched doorway consisting of two orders of shafts with moulded capitals and bases, continuous cavetto moulding, a restored hoodmould and a dressed-stone relieving arch above. The interior of the porch has diamond-set quarry tiles, plastered walls and splayed jambs to side openings. Eighteenth-century wooden side benches with shaped legs and two raised and fielded panels to the back of each are present. A 15th-century continuously-moulded Tudor-arched inner doorway is visible; the present door dates from the mid-19th century and has six panels (beaded-flush lower panels, sunken middle panels and glazed upper panels). A wooden surround, probably introduced in the 17th century, features cable-fluted Doric pilasters on panelled square pedestals, and an overdoor consisting of a segmental arch with ornamented spandrels resting on half-balusters flanking a central coat of arms, flanking short fluted pilasters and a strapwork frieze and cornice.

The late 17th-century left-hand range has a symmetrical front of four bays with leaded wooden cross windows (20th-century replacements) with dressed-stone flat-arched heads. Downpipes in the angles of the wings have late 17th-century moulded lead rainwater heads.

The rear elevation features five hipped late 17th-century wooden dormers with two-light leaded wooden casements. Two late 17th-century first-floor windows have dressed-stone flat-arched heads: a three-light leaded wooden casement to the right and a blocked window to the left (rendered). An entrance formed from a blocked window to the right is partly obscured by the right-hand outshut. The ground floor has a 19th-century weatherboarded lean-to outshut with two four-pane sashes and a boarded door set back to the left. A rear through-passage doorway has a 19th-century six-panelled door with the top two panels glazed (a moulded Tudor-arched doorway is visible internally).

The late 18th-century staircase block projecting to the left has a first-floor leaded wooden cross window to the left with a flat-arched head, and a first-floor three-light wooden mullioned and transomed window with a flat-arched head to the right-hand return front. A late 17th-century boarded door with a rectangular overlight is in the right-hand return front (now inside the 19th-century lean-to addition but visible from the staircase hall inside). Further late 19th-century lean-to additions front the staircase block. The outshut to the right has two hipped eaves dormers with three-light leaded wooden casements and two ground-floor three-light 20th-century wooden casements to the left (in old openings) with wooden lintels, one leaded. A large recess is present in the gable end to the east. Flat-roofed 20th-century additions are to the west.

A late 17th-century garden wall adjoins the staircase block to the north-east, between the rear garden and the churchyard. It is of dressed sandstone with a hollow-chamfered plinth.

Interior

The through passage has a quarry-tiled floor and a 15th-century moulded Tudor-arched former rear doorway. A ground-floor room in the circa 1700 range to the left of the passage has a dressed-stone depressed-arched fireplace and panelled window shutters. The two ground-floor rooms to the right of the through passage and the two bedrooms above were completely remodelled in the late 17th century with bolection-moulded panelling, including a moulded dado rail and moulded cornice, and two panelled doors with moulded architraves (some have 18th-century H-hinges with shaped ends). The fireplace in the principal ground-floor room to the right of the passage formerly had an elaborate 17th-century overmantel (introduced from Poltimore House, South Devon, in the 19th century), which is now in Court Hall. The other three rooms retain late 17th-century bolection-moulded chimney-pieces with panels above. The right-hand bedroom has late 17th-century painting in-situ over the chimney-piece depicting a hunting scene including an idealised coastal landscape with a castle in the background. The ground-floor room to the right of the passage has three probably 18th-century glazed cupboards to the rear wall. Plain panelling is present in the projecting bay of the right-hand ground-floor room, with a dado rail. Late 17th-century dressed-stone depressed-arched fireplaces are in all four rooms.

An early 18th-century staircase is located in the rear block; the staircase hall is approached by a four-panelled door from the principal front room. The staircase is a dog-leg with a half landing, open string with cut brackets, moulded nosings, barleysugar balusters (two per tread), a moulded ramped handrail and square newel posts with moulded caps and pendants. The balustrade returns to the landing. An 18th-century cupboard on the half landing has a two-panelled door with H-hinges. A moulded plaster cornice runs around the staircase hall. A late 17th-century rear doorway at the foot of the stairs has a boarded door, beaded frame and three-part leaded rectangular overlight. The first-floor rear corridor has 18th-century two-panelled doors with pegged frames. Old dog-leg attic stairs with winders are present.

The roof dates from the late 17th century and consists of trusses with principal rafters, lapped collars and threaded purlins.