South Knighton House

South Knighton House is a large house probably dating from the late 16th or 17th century, which was remodelled and enlarged in the mid 18th century and further altered with minor additions in the early 19th century. It is constructed of roughcast stone and cob with tarred slated roofs with deep eaves supported by paired brackets; the cross-wing is hipped on the south side.

The house has a T-shaped plan with a through-passage placed at the west end of the main range. To the east of it are two large heated rooms with an unheated store room at the far end. A second through-passage was inserted at the west end of the middle room in the 19th century, and a room with a large fireplace was added at the rear. In the rear (north) wall of the main range are two large projecting chimneystacks; the one on the east has a thatch weathering and a cap formed by a projecting slate-course, while a later stack is located in the west wall of the cross-wing. A small stair turret, probably added in the 18th or 19th century, stands in front. The cross-wing contains two rooms with an 18th-century staircase between them. A porch with a room over was added at the rear of the through-passage at this end of the house in the 19th century. The building is two storeys except for a single-storied addition behind the east end of the main range.

The south (garden) front is four widely spaced windows wide, with the left-hand window occupying the cross-wing. The windows in the cross-wing and in the left bay of the main range are sashes without horns, all of eight panes except for the ground storey sashes of the cross-wing which have six panes. The doorway to the left of the main range and its counterpart at the rear of the through-passage have early 19th-century panelled doors. In front of the south door and its adjacent window is a lean-to conservatory. To the right of this is the stair turret with a lean-to roof. To the right of the turret, the front has retained its 18th-century character with three-light casements having slender moulded wood mullions in the ground and upper storeys; the ground storey window has three panes per light whilst the window above has leaded panes. The far right-hand window in the second storey is a 20th-century three-light wood casement with no corresponding window in the ground storey.

In the north front, the windows of the main range retain 18th-century wood mullions and leaded panes, and there is a 19th-century plank door at the rear of the inserted through-passage. The added lean-to at the east end has in its east wall a re-used wood door frame of late 16th to mid 17th-century date, square-headed with an ovolo moulding. The entrance porch to the west and the cross-wing, including the side wall to the road, have six-paned sashes without horns. The door to the porch has two panels below and is glazed with a margin of quarter panes above. Both the porch and cross-wing are gabled and architecturally treated with giant stucco pilasters between and at either side of them.

The interior is surprisingly simple, notable mainly for its modest 18th and 19th-century detail and for its old irregular plaster surfaces. Nothing of an earlier date is visible, although good quality concealed features are likely to exist. The main staircase in the cross-wing is a wooden open well with slender turned balusters and square newels with beaded angles and flat moulded caps. In the south second storey room of the wing is a wooden chimneypiece with moulded architrave, plain frieze and moulded cornice, with tile sides flanked by large scrolls. The middle ground storey room of the main range has a moulded plaster cornice which extends into the inserted passage. It contains a large fireplace with a segmental brick arch and in the back is the stone-framed opening to a former oven. The roof timbers are all re-used, possibly the late 16th or 17th-century originals cut up to form a lower pitch.