Mansion

Large country house on a hillside overlooking the Lypiatt and Toadsmoor valleys. The core of the building dates from the mid-16th century and is constructed in ashlar limestone with ashlar chimneys and a stone slate roof.

The house was substantially altered and extended between 1809 and 1815 by Sir Jeffrey Wyatville for Sir Paul Baghott. Further minor alterations followed around 1841 by Samuel Daukes for Samuel Baker, and significant additions were made in 1876-77 by T.H. Wyatt for Sir John Dorington. The building comprises an east-west range of two storeys with an attic, a two-storey south-east wing forming an L-plan, and various two and three-storey additions at the north end, with a single-storey cloister linking to an associated chapel.

The north front displays the original 16th-century house with a crenellated parapet added by Wyatville. From east to west, it features a two-storey canted bay window with round-arched mullioned casements and crenellated parapet. There is a moulded three-centred arched doorway with a three-light casement above having trefoil-headed lights, and a single light in a crow-stepped gable topped by a diagonally-set chimney. A former two-storey porch was removed in the 20th century. A double-height crenellated hall bay window was rebuilt by Wyatville. Two attic dormers with shaped barge boards are set back behind the parapet. Two-window fenestration to the right is 19th-century work, with mullioned and transomed casements featuring trefoil heads. A three-storey tower at the west end with machicolated parapet and small circular stair turret forms part of Wyatville's alterations, with trefoil-headed mullioned and transomed casements to the front and 13th-century style pointed windows and doorway on the east side. Perpendicular tracery appears in three large windows of the projecting cloister, with four-centred moulded doorways and carved shields in panels above at the outer ends.

The east front features a parapet gable end of the north range with single-window fenestration, mullioned and transomed with ovolo mouldings and hood-moulds. The wing to the left is Wyatville's addition, in which each main room forms a large square block projection. Large canted bay windows with coloured glass and quatrefoil tracery light the ground floors of each block, with tall Perpendicular-traceried windows above. 13th-century style lancets appear in the recessed linking parts, with the right section forming a tall narrow stair window. The range was further extended to the left by T.H. Wyatt.

The south side features an asymmetrical end block to the south-east wing by T.H. Wyatt, with a pointed arched doorway to the left flanked by offset buttresses and a roundel above inscribed "KD CHD 1877", with a Decorated-traceried window above and a canted Perpendicular-traceried bay window to the right. A square two-storey bay projects from the west side of Wyatt's addition. The west side of the remainder of the wing shows Wyatville's symmetrical elevation with a central two-storey canted bay richly traceried and panelled, flanked by two slender offset buttresses with crocketed pinnacle tops and outer pointed windows, finished with a panelled crenellated parapet. One and a half parapet gables of the main 16th-century range remain visible to the left; this wall was rebuilt around 1700 when the ancient hall was enlarged, reusing mullioned and transomed hall windows with round-arched lights. A plainish cross-gabled two-storey addition with attic to the left features an octagonal turret to the section linking with a three-storey service block in the south-west corner, the latter a Wyatt addition.

The interior has been largely adapted with simple white-painted stone or plaster walls to serve as a backdrop for sculpture by the present owner, Lynn Chadwick. Rooms at the east end of the original house retain extensive panelling, with the upper floor having an unorthodox classical doorcase with two superimposed Ionic pilaster orders. Local tradition records this as a room used by those involved in the Gunpowder Plot, one of whom, John Thockmorton, was Lord of Over Lypiatt Manor. Wyatville's rooms feature panelled ceilings with oak leaf bosses and Gothick-style fireplaces, with door-cases of mixed Regency reeded and Gothick types. The Gothick-style staircase includes an upper floor landing with views through tracery into the double-height corridor of the south-east wing.

The house is principally noted for its picturesque Gothick additions by Wyatville and the sensitive further additions by T.H. Wyatt. The property is surrounded by numerous associated outbuildings, including a chapel, granary, dovecote, stables, and a castellated garden terrace wall.