Summerhouse Approximately 120 Metres South-West of Wood House is a Grade II* listed building in the West Devon local planning authority area, England. First listed on 4 March 1988. A Victorian Summerhouse.
Summerhouse Approximately 120 Metres South-West of Wood House
- WRENN ID
- quiet-groin-alder
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- West Devon
- Constituency
- Central Devon MP: Sir Mel Stride (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 4 March 1988
- Type
- Summerhouse
- Period
- Victorian
- OS grid reference
- SX 653 959
- Coordinates
- 50.74726, -3.91042
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
Summerhouse, built between 1899 and 1905 by Thomas Mawson, as part of a landscaping scheme associated with the rebuilding of Wood House. The structure is largely constructed of roughcast granite stone rubble laid to irregular courses, with dressed granite quoins and granite ashlar detailing; the roof is of Cotswold stone slabs. The summerhouse is built on a hillside, facing Wood House to the northeast.
The plan consists of a single room with a right-hand stack and a bay window to the left, built at right angles to the rear of an arcade with a semi-circular roof. The end bays were likely always enclosed, but were converted into service rooms in the 17th century.
The curving arcade is supported by a series of turned, monolithic granite Tuscan posts; the outer end bays are defined by square section posts and infilled with 20th-century walls. Each end wall is granite and contains a round-headed niche with an eared architrave. The roof is hipped at each end and has a decorated lead gutter. At the rear, pairs of posts stand in front of the doorway to the summerhouse room. The bay window is granite-mullioned, in a style complementing Wood House, and features rectangular panes of leaded glass.
The interior is finished to a high standard, similarly to the main house. The granite ashlar fireplace has a cable-moulded surround, as do the two round-headed alcoves of the granite chimneypiece. A Latin inscription is carved into the lintel. The room is lined with fielded panel oak wainscotting, above which are panels with moulded plaster architraves. A coved plaster cornice and ornamental plasterwork in a Jacobean vernacular style decorate the ceiling of the bay.
Thomas Mawson considered the entire landscaping scheme, including the summerhouse, as a significant achievement.
Local climate
Summerhouse Approximately 120 Metres South-West of Wood House sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 960 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 75% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 70% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 37 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 66% of listed buildings. Of these, 18 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- Sale history — 1 transaction since 2002
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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