Seynckley House Including Courtyard Walls

Seynckley House is a large detached house with a courtyard, dating to the late 15th or early 16th century with subsequent alterations and additions. The north range and courtyard walls originate from the late 15th or early 16th centuries, the south range from the early 17th century, and a west range, built as a school in 1698. Further alterations occurred in 1909 by Sidney Barnsley for Henry Payne. The construction is primarily of random and coursed rubble limestone, with ashlar chimneys, and a stone slate roof.

The house forms three sides of a courtyard, with a high wall to the east. The north side features a late 17th-century re-facing of the earlier range, displaying a three-window, two-light chamfered mullioned casement fenestration with linking hoodmoulds. An early 20th-century alteration created three tall, full-height windows, and there are two gabled dormers, one leaded. The western end of this range, built in the late 17th century, has single-window fenestration, originally two-light, with a doorway inserted into an altered ground-floor casement. The east gable end of this range has an open-sided bellcote with a leaded ogee top and a clock in a small gable on the courtyard side.

The west side presents the main elevation of the late 17th-century range, largely with two-light mullioned casements in a six-window arrangement, grouped under combining hoodmoulds, except for a three-light window to each floor roughly at the centre. The roof is hipped at the northwest corner and gabled at the south end. Four gabled dormers are present, with two chimneys featuring moulded caps. The south end incorporates an early 17th-century cross-gabled wing, characterized by single-window fenestration below a south-facing parapet gable. This wing has a C19 three-light window to the ground floor, a five-light ovolo moulded upper floor casement, and a three-light window to the attic, with a small blocked opening above. A chimney gable marks the rear of this range. The courtyard has C20 inserted timber cross-windows.

The courtyard wall contains a large pointed arched doorway at the southeast corner. Another pointed arched doorway is located where the wall joins the gable end of the north range, and a projecting stair turret has a coped top and a small light.

Inside, the north range retains several original doorways, including two leading to a stone spiral stair with ogee arched heads, and a pointed arched external doorway. The roof in this area is of three bays, with principal rafters having curved feet, originally with arched bracing, now missing. A fine early 17th-century Jacobean stone fireplace is in an upper floor room of the south range, while a fireplace of possibly slightly earlier date is found in the south end of the west range, suggesting a possible rebuilding. A late 17th-century dog-leg staircase features turned balusters and moulded handrails. Several simple stone fireplaces were added by Barnsley. One window contains stained glass by Henry Payne.

The house was owned by the Berkeley family for much of the medieval period and was significantly altered to serve as a charity school in 1698. It was later purchased by Henry Payne, the artist and stained glass designer, in 1908.