Summerhouse Approximately 120 Metres South-West Of Wood House

SX 69 NE SOUTH TAWTON

1/184 Summerhouse approximately 120 metres south-west of Wood House

GV II*

Summerhouse. 1899-1905 by Thomas Mawson. Partly-roughcast granite stone rubble laid to rough courses with dressed granite quoins and granite ashlar detail; probably Cotswold stone slab roof. Plan: Summerhouse built up the hillslope from and facing Wood House (q.v.) to the north-east. It comprises a single room with right lateral stack and left bay window built at right angles to rear of the centre of a semi-circular roofed arcade. At each end the last bay has probably always been enclosed but in the mid C17 these have been converted to service rooms. Exterior: curving arcade is supported on a series of turned monolithic granite Tuscan posts, the outer end bays defined by square section posts and infilled with C20 walls. The end walls are granite and each contains a round-headed niche with eared architrave around. The roof is hipped each end and has a decorated lead gutter. At the back, in the centre are pairs of posts in front of the doorway to the Summerhouse room. The bay window here is granite-mullioned in the same style as the house and contains rectangular panes of leaded glass. Interior: finished to the same standard as the main house. The granite ashlar fireplace has a cable-moulded surround, so too do-the 2 round-headed alcoves of the granite chimneypiece. The lintel is carved with a Latin inscription. The room is lined with fielded panel oak wainscotting and above the dado are panels with moulded plaster architraves. Coved plaster cornice and the ceiling of the bay is enriched with ornamental plasterwork in the Jacobean vernacular style. This summerhouse is part of an extensive landscaping scheme conceived by Mawson to go with the rebuilding of Wood House (q.v.). Mawson himself considered the whole scheme as one of his major achievements. Source: T H Mawson The Art and Craft of Garden Making, (5th edition) includes copious notes and illustrations of Wood House.

Listing NGR: SX6531895927