Dittisham Court

Dittisham Court

House, dating from approximately the early 17th century, though possibly containing earlier fabric and including some 18th and 19th-century work, but greatly remodelled in the early 20th century. The building is constructed of roughcast stone rubble. The main south-facing range has an early 20th-century slate roof with deep eaves and exposed rafter ends, with deep verges at the gable ends. The rear north wing retains its original steep roof pitch but has been reclad in natural slates and red clay ridge tiles, with some early crested ridge tiles reused over the south end of the north wing. The building features axial, lateral and gable end stacks with rendered shafts, some with moulded cornices and yellow clay pots.

The original early 17th-century house was L-shaped in plan. The main range facing south runs on an east-west axis, with its two left-hand (western) rooms largely intact, though the range probably originally extended further west. The left-hand of the two rooms in the main south range has a lateral stack at the back, while the right-hand room is heated from an axial stack. The early 17th-century wing behind the right-hand end has a gable end stack. Although there may have been intermediate phases, including circa mid-19th-century extensions recorded in White's Directory, the major remodelling was carried out in the early 20th century. At this time, large extensions were added to the right-hand side projecting at the front, and a porch was added at the back in the angle with the rear wing. The remodelling was designed in a style reminiscent of Voysey, featuring roughcast walls, raking buttresses and deep eaves with exposed rafter ends. Later in the 20th century, a single-storey service extension was added to the back (north east) of the earlier 20th-century addition, and a verandah and conservatories were added to the front (south) and left (west) end of the main range.

The exterior is two storeys. The asymmetrical south front of the main range has a 2:2:1 window elevation. The 2-window section to the left is the original main range of the house, with 4 and 5-light ovolo moulded mullion-transom windows (the right-hand with glazing bars) and similar 3-light windows on the first floor; they appear to be early 20th-century replacements but may be earlier. The 2-window centre section is the early 20th-century projecting addition, which has a 1-window projecting gabled bay to the right; the windows are early 20th-century mullion-transom casements and large garden doors on the ground floor, now enclosed in a late 20th-century glazed verandah and conservatory. The right-hand (east) return has similar but altered early 20th-century fenestration and a gable. The rear (north) elevation of the main range has a projecting lateral stack and weathering over the original thick lower section of the wall. In the angle with the rear wing is an early 20th-century hipped roof porch. The rear (north) wing has a steeply pitched roof with a large projecting gable end stack with set-offs. Both the west elevation and the rear wing display an asymmetrical arrangement of early 20th-century mullion windows. In the north-east angle of the rear wing is a later 20th-century flat roof extension.

Interior features include an axial fireplace in the right-hand of the two original rooms of the main range, with dressed stone jambs and rounded corbels supporting a timber lintel ovolo moulded with run-out stops and a cavetto moulding above terminating in small spandrels over the stops. An early 17th-century moulded plaster frieze survives on the opposite side of this room, with putti flanking plain shields in strapwork frames. The frieze survives only on the west wall, but the restored moulded plaster cornice continues around the plastered ceiling beams. A partition has been inserted into this room to provide an entrance hall at the back. 18th-century fielded panel window shutters are present in this room. The left-hand room of the main range has a heavy chamfered cross-beam with partly buried step stops at one end. The lateral fireplace on the back wall has been blocked by a 20th-century chimneypiece. The back room in the rear wing has a high ceiling with two chamfered cross-beams with hollow step stops and a blocked fireplace in the gable end.

The roof contains three 17th-century trusses in the south section of the rear wing, with straight collars with notched lap joints to the straight principals which have threaded purlins and are trenched for the diagonally set ridge piece. The ridge piece and rafters are missing. A solid wall separates the north and south sections of the rear wing; the north section has a later roof structure with simple lapped collars. The roof of the rest of the house was replaced circa the early 20th century with softwood king-post trusses.

White's Directory of 1878 records that "Court Barton has recently been employed and is the seat of Edward Owen".