Venton House Venton Manor Venton Manor And Venton House Including Garden Boundary Adjoining South Venton Manor

Venton Manor and Venton House, including garden boundary adjoining South Venton Manor, represents the remains of a substantial courtyard mansion with a complex building history spanning from the late 15th century to the 19th century.

The core structure comprises remains of a late 15th-century hall with early 16th-century and late 16th to early 17th-century lodging ranges, together with the remains of an early 16th-century gatehouse. The mansion was substantially partly rebuilt and extended during the early to mid 19th century. The building is constructed of local limestone rubble with some granite, red sandstone and Beerstone for windows and doorframes, with a steeply pitched Welsh slate roof featuring gabled ends (the left end half-hipped, the right end higher), while the roof over the early to mid 19th-century extension to the north west is hipped.

The building is arranged on four sides of a courtyard. The long south range facing north onto the courtyard served as a lodging range: the early 16th-century section contained ten rooms on two floors, while the later 16th-century section to the west contained twelve rooms on three floors, and was extended to the west around the 1840s. The hall range was originally located on the west side of the courtyard as an end hall, though its hall and lower end to the north were reconstructed as a farm building around the early 19th century; the hall's fireplace remains in situ on the north side of the lodgings range. The north side of the courtyard retains remains of a gatehouse at the centre with a carriageway through it; the outer arch has been reset, while the inner arch was relocated in the south lodgings range. The east range was reconstructed in the 19th century as a barn.

The north front elevation of the lodgings range facing the courtyard is asymmetrical and two storeys high. To the left, ground floor and chamber above feature moulded 2-light windows with 3-centred arched lights; the ground floor window is volcanic stone with a label, while the chamber above is red sandstone. A further window to the right is 2-light with ovolo moulded frame and label, with the chamber above containing a late 17th or early 18th-century 3-light wooden casement with leaded panes and timber lintel. To the left is a large reset carriage entrance with a double chamfered granite 3-centred arch with chamfered and stopped jambs and projecting impost. A small single-light sandstone window is positioned to the left, with a large stone window frame above (partly blocked) and a late 17th to early 18th-century 3-light wooden casement with glazing bars and stanchion bars inserted. The south elevation is a long asymmetrical 8-window range plus a further 1-window to the left of the mid 19th-century cross wing, with various 20th-century casements set in old openings. First floor right features a reset roll-moulded sandstone 2-light window with 3-centred arched lights. The ground floor window of the room to the right has a moulded single light window. An ovolo moulded stone 2-light window at the centre of the ground floor is now a doorway with the mullion and cill removed. Various irregularly arranged 20th-century windows occupy the left-hand lower end. The mid 19th-century addition at the lower left end projects, has a low hipped roof, and features 12-pane sashes. The projecting lateral stack has set-offs and a truncated corbelled shaft to the left. The axial stack to the right is granite ashlar with a moulded cap and weathering.

Within the courtyard, the long single storey range on the right west side comprises the former hall range and lower service end, rebuilt as cart-sheds and stables and now partly blocked between round stone rubble piers. The north front range of the courtyard is also single storey, with a carriageway through featuring moulded granite jambs and a segmental arch on the outside. At the east left end, a large barn encloses the east left side of the courtyard. Though not attached at the opposite south end to the main range of the house, it has been converted into living accommodation while retaining its external stone stairs to the first floor on the courtyard side. Various 20th-century windows are present; on its outer north gable end is a 4-light moulded granite window with a king mullion and 4-centred arched lights with iron stanchion and saddle bars. The outer east side has 20th-century windows and doorways inserted into old openings including wide barn doorways; the first floor doorway to the left features a moulded timber lintel, probably a reused door jamb with a sort of vase-shaped stop. The eaves have a chamfered timber wall plate. The 1840s extension at the north west end of the main range is rendered, has a low pitched hipped slate roof, irregular elevations with sash windows with glazing bars, and on the north side a window with the date 1845 scratched on a pane.

Interior features include a large ground floor room in the south range (formed from two rooms) with a granite rear lateral fireplace featuring a double roll moulding and Tudor arch, a plastered ceiling, and remains of a newel stair on the right of the front wall. The wall between this room and the east room is solid masonry rising to the roof apex. The east room has chamfered joists and an axial fireplace with moulded granite jambs and a chamfered large slate lintel. The fireplace in the chamber above has chamfered granite jambs and a later unchamfered slate lintel, with a reused moulded granite corbel above. A large former hall fireplace on the front wall of the right end in the rebuilt hall range features a moulded Tudor double roll and hollow arch (one jamb missing), with a lintel bearing recessed spandrels and a row of six shields in a frieze of quatrefoils. The west end extension of the lodgings range has a fireplace with chamfered granite jambs, a cambered slate arch and a stone oven, though the roof at this end and ceiling beams have been entirely replaced. Some 18th or early 19th-century panelled doors and early to mid 19th-century fireplaces survive on the first floor of the main range, along with a mid 19th-century staircase to the attic.

The roof over the east end of the lodgings range has principal rafters with short cranked feet, threaded purlins (and possibly a threaded ridge) and morticed collars. The roof over the remainder of the lodgings range has straight principal rafters, the feet of which may originally have been similarly cranked but have been cut off if so; these principals also have threaded purlins but the collars are lapped and pegged.

The listing also includes garden walls adjoining the south and south east of the property. These circa 17th-century walls, possibly incorporating earlier fabric, are constructed of local limestone rubble and form boundaries to irregular-shaped gardens to the south and south east of Venton Manor, attached to the house at the south east corner.

Venton was the seat of the Ventons or Fentons from at least 1242 until 1392, when it passed to the Gibbes, who held it until 1570. It then passed to the Woottons, who sold it to the Glanvilles around the early 17th century. The Gibbes were notorious local insurgents who maintained a small private army from approximately 1501 to 1549. The property has subsequently been subdivided into two properties: Venton Manor occupies most of the main range and the courtyard ranges, while Venton House occupies the lower west end of the main range and the 1840s extension.

Venton represents a most interesting example of a late Medieval courtyard house with lodging ranges designed for accommodating retainers.