The Keep And Attached Walls To Service Yard

THE KEEP AND ATTACHED WALLS TO SERVICE YARD, DARTMOUTH

A house set in its own grounds, built in 1850 according to the deeds, with extensive repair and modernisation undertaken in the 1970s. The building is constructed from brown-coloured local stone rubble with red brick and some cream-coloured sandstone dressings. The rear service rooms are rendered. Rendered chimneyshafts feature large castellated crests, and the roof is covered with asbestos slate.

The plan comprises a front block with a 2-room layout, flanked by large corner drum turrets. A third drum turret immediately behind the right corner turret contains the entrance hall and main stair. A corridor runs from the entrance hall behind the front rooms, separating the principal rooms from the original service rooms to the rear.

The exterior is Gothick in style. The building is 2 storeys with attics and 3-storey turrets, presenting a nearly-symmetrical front elevation with a 0:3:1 window arrangement. The left corner turret contains blind vertical slits. The central main block features large pointed-arch openings lined with red brick and moulded stone cranked-arch hoodmoulds. All windows are arch-headed with glazing bars and margin panes. The left bay contains casements with fixed pane heads, the ground-floor right bay has double French windows, and the remainder are horned sashes. The right corner turret contains similar sash windows, with the ground-floor window featuring an arch-headed hoodmould and plain casements with glazing bars to the third floor. Both turrets and the front elevation have crenellated parapets; the turrets rise higher and the parapets are now rendered. This style continues around the right side to the entrance front.

The entrance turret contains a square-headed doorway beneath a timber flat hood with reeded edges, supported on a pair of reused 17th-century oriel brackets carved as animals. The timber doorframe forms a pointed arch with a simple surround and spandrels, enclosing a studded plank door with good original wrought-ironwork. A stair window above comprises a tall lancet with top Y-tracery. A similar window serves the rear service stair, though its lower part is now blocked by a late 20th-century lean-to extension. The rendered service block contains various sash and casement windows with glazing bars. Hipped parallel roofs are connected by a kitchen wing roof.

Internally, the main entrance is through a small lobby beneath the stairs. The circular stair is late 17th-century in style, featuring an open string, large turned newel posts and balusters, a curtail step, and a large moulded handrail in several sections—suggesting the builder encountered significant difficulties accommodating the curve and ramps. The remainder of the house displays standard Victorian detail, including panelled doors, plaster reeded cornices, at least one marble chimneypiece, and a stick-baluster service stair positioned close to the service bells.

The service courtyard and boundary walls form significant subsidiary features. A cobbled yard runs alongside the southwest of the kitchen range, with a single-storey former coach house beyond, now converted to a garage. A tall wall separates the coach house from the garden, which is set well back from the house front, and continues with a crenellated parapet as the gable end of the coach house. The front gable end facing the road contains a loading hatch. The boundary wall to Mount Boone contains two gateways and an arch-headed doorway, all constructed from plain timber. Some elements have been rebuilt to match the original design, and all retain good original ironwork.

The house was built to resemble a medieval castle in a prominent position on a steep hillside facing south-east towards the mouth of the estuary. The original lease from H.P. Seale to J.W. Wooldridge, dated 1850, stipulates that the house should cost no less than £3,000.