Flete

Flete is a large country house situated within a landscaped park, originally the seat of Lord Mildmay. The origins of the house date to the 16th century, with substantial rebuilding around 1620 for Sir Charles Hele. Additions were made in the early and late 18th century. The house was heavily remodelled in a Gothic style in 1835, and again in 1878 by R. Norman Shaw, who retained the early 17th-century core to the southwest. The house is built of rock-faced coursed limestone with granite dressings.

The original 16th-century section to the southwest is two storeys high, with a five-gabled west elevation. The centre of this section projects, and there is a projecting gabled dining room wing to the southwest, believed to have originally been the great hall. The 1835 Gothic remodelling obscured the earlier 18th-century classical work. Norman Shaw’s 1878 remodelling encompassed the entire house, except for this 16th-century section. During this phase, the northwest kitchen wing was rebuilt, and a tower porch was added on the north side, creating an enormous castellated Tudor-style mansion with asymmetrical elevations.

The house is three storeys high, rising to four and five-storey towers. The long north entrance front features a large five-storey tower with turrets and a two-storey oriel over a four-centred arch porch doorway. Niches in the side walls of the tower contain figures. The south and west elevations have semi-circular and splayed bays and oriels, and the southeast corner has a four-storey square tower. A large three-storey semi-circular bay is located in the southwest angle. The south elevation of the kitchen wing has a square bay on the west end, an oriel near the centre, and a massive stack between, with set-offs and a cluster of circular flues. A service passageway runs beneath the stack, spanned by a bridge.

The interior, designed by Shaw, incorporates detailing by J.A. Heaton, W.H. Lascelles, and W.R. Lethaby, and is richly decorated in a Jacobean style with panelling, Italianate plasterwork, and elaborate chimneypieces. Notable features include a large framed staircase, a gallery with a double flight of stairs at one end, and a galleried music room. The estate of Flete dates back to Saxon times; the manor was held by the Damarell family from 1066 to Edward III.