Kelly House

Kelly House

A house comprising two distinct sections: an eastern wing of 16th and 17th-century date, and a classical western block built between 1742 and 1745 by Abraham Rundle of Tavistock. The two sections are linked, with the earlier house adapted as a service wing following the construction of the new western block.

East Wing

The eastern section is rendered stone with a slate roof, gabled at the right end and hipped to the front over the porch at the left, with stone dressings. A massive lateral projecting stone stack rises from the side; a rendered stack on the ridge carries a pair of diagonally-set shafts, and a second ridge stack has a pair of axial shafts.

The central 4-bay block preserves an early to mid 16th-century roof and may originally have been an open hall associated with the rear lateral stack, with an inner room to the right. A floor was likely inserted during the 17th century when the house was refenestrated. The 2-storey porch dates to the 17th century. The lower end of the house was probably dismantled between 1742 and 1745 when the building was adapted as a service wing. The first floor was refenestrated in the 19th century with timber mullioned windows, probably preserving the 17th-century apertures.

The front elevation shows 2 storeys with 1 plus 2 windows, dominated by a 2-storey projecting porch on the left. To the right of the central hall block the front is slightly advanced under a sloping slate roof, probably indicating a demolished wing. The porch features a round-headed 17th-century ashlar doorway with voussoirs and keystones supporting the arch on square capitals. The ground floor window to the right of the porch is a 6-light 17th-century stone mullioned window with 8 square leaded panes per light and 2 casements. An adjacent similar window has a more prominent king mullion. Above the porch doorway is a 3-light 19th-century timber mullioned window with 10 panes per light. A similar 8-light window to the right of the porch has 12 panes per light, as does a similar 6-light window above the inner room.

The roof contains three moulded arched brace trusses with principals having curved feet and three tiers of moulded stopped purlins. To the front of the house the principals have been truncated above the lower tier of purlins, presumably when the first floor was fenestrated, leaving only two tiers of purlins. A massive ground floor fireplace serving the rear lateral stack has an applied 19th-century lintel and jambs and was probably adapted when the room was used as a kitchen. Seventeenth-century panelling remains intact. A single 17th-century granite moulded fireplace serves the chamber above the inner room.

West Wing

A classical house of 1742-45, built at a cost of £250. It is finished in stucco blocked out over stone rubble or brick, with a hipped slate roof featuring a central valley and four stone stacks on the ridge. The plan comprises five rooms arranged around a rear central stair hall. The position of the original main entrance is unclear; it may have been on the west front leading through the hall into the stair hall, but the present west front has only a modest garden entrance. In the late 19th century a porch and butler's passage were added on the east, with the porch leading directly into the great parlour and the passage accessing the service rooms.

The elevation to the garden (west) front shows 2 storeys over a plinth and platband, with rusticated quoins and an eaves cornice above a dentil frieze. The central three bays are slightly advanced and surmounted by a pediment with dentil frieze and keyed oculus. Steps lead up to a modestly-scaled central doorway framed by pilasters and entablature with triglyph frieze. The first floor window above the doorway has a moulded eared architrave with a moulded keystone. Other windows are plain with keystones; all windows throughout are 19th-century horned sashes. A Venetian stair window on the east wall features a central sash with margin glazing flanked by lights set within heavy pilasters supporting an entablature; the central light is round-arched with a keystone. The late 19th-century porch on the east wall at the left is in a sympathetic style, with a pedimented gable, quoins and a platband. It contains a 2-leaf panelled door below a round-headed fanlight with glazing bars and stained glass. A round-headed sash window with margin glazing adjoins the porch to the left return, with 2 similar windows to the butler's passage.

Interior

The 1742-45 interior is remarkably complete, with all joinery, fireplaces and cornices intact. The stair hall is particularly fine, featuring an internal broken pediment to the stair window with a plaster cherubim above, a painted decorated plaster ceiling, and a dog-leg stair with panelled dado, ramped handrail, barley sugar balusters and fluted newels. One upstairs room retains some probably 18th-century colour scheme of grey and pink on the panelling. The first floor room above the former servants' hall contains a variety of 17th-century panelling, probably reused from the old house.

In 1877 a partition wall between the common parlour and a closet was removed. Also in 1877 a 2-bay, 2-storey organ room was added to the north of the house. A late 18th-century painting shows the main entrance on the south side, though this may never have been executed.

History and Documentation

The Kelly Archive preserves an estimate for work dated 1742, a memo of work to be done dated 1743, and four accounts for masons', architects', glaziers', plasterers' and carpenters' work dated 1742-45. Abraham Rundle leased one of the Kelly houses in the parish from A Kelly in 1746 and 1753. The Kellys were established at Kelly at the Conquest, being descended from Motbert, who held the manor in 1086, and continue to live at Kelly House.

The survival of an important early to mid 16th-century roof in the east wing, combined with the quality and completeness of the 18th-century interior, makes this an outstanding building.