Mythe Court Southern Mythe Court

Country house, now divided into two separate occupations. Built in 1756, with extensions added in the early 19th century. Smooth rendered exterior with some painted brickwork and slate roofs.

The original house probably followed an L-plan with a symmetrical south front and an additional principal room to the west front, arranged around a central staircase hall. Early 19th-century extensions with two parallel wings to a narrow courtyard transformed this into a U-shaped plan, with the courtyard enclosed by a wall to the north. The property was divided in the late 20th century, with the south and west fronts forming Southern Mythe House and the east front forming Mythe House. The building is two storeys throughout.

The south front is symmetrical with a slightly recessed centre, featuring a 2:1:2 arrangement of 12-pane sash windows. A central panelled door with side lights stands beneath a broad portico supported on flat paired pilasters with an entablature above. Flat pilasters frame the ends and central recessed bay. A bold moulded cornice, blocking course and coped parapet conceal the low-pitched hipped roofs.

To the right of the south front is a slight extension of approximately 1.7 metres returning to the east front, lacking the cornice and parapet of the main facade. The left return front features two bold, closely-set canted bays with 8:12:8-paned sashes at each level, topped with a glazed hood on a lightweight scalloped wrought-iron 'fringe' carried on doubled wrought-iron standards. This was formerly curved in a tent-hood shape but has been replaced with flat glass; the original stone or rendered cornice was carefully replaced in painted wood to match the original profile.

Rendered ridge stacks sit to right and left on the south front. Further left, slightly set back with a stack in the internal angle, is a hipped wing in painted brick featuring 12-pane sashes above a 16-pane sash and two smaller windows. Beyond this, a small-scale single-bay extension contains 2-light casements with a 2-light above a 4-light casement in segmental head on the north return. A 20th-century door and porch, now the main entrance to Southern Mythe Court, stands furthest left.

The east front of Mythe Court comprises two sections entirely in painted brickwork to hipped slate roofs. The first three-bay section features a coped parapet, 12-pane sashes and a central panelled door. To the right, a slightly set-back wing of two bays contains glazing-bar sashes. Both wings have gable stacks.

The interior of Mythe Court has been much altered, but Southern Mythe Court retains substantial original features. The central entrance hall features geometric Minton tiles, panelled doors in fluted surrounds, and a richly modelled frieze and cornice. A tall arched opening with panelled intrados on paired consoles leads to the square staircase hall. The open-well stair is covered by a conical rooflight with radial bars, set on a bold egg-and-dart cornice. The stair has a scrolled open string, swept mahogany handrail and very slender turned balusters with a mid reel.

The main room to the left of the hall features early oak floorboards, a white marble fire surround and rich decorative cornice. The windows have panelled shutters, with the central opening to the bay incorporating a section of shuttering that pulls up from an under-floor pocket. The second room is similar, with a wood fire surround, a frieze with egg-and-dart and rosettes.

The house belonged in the late 19th century to Reverend Charles William Grove, donor of the Grove organ to the Abbey, and later to the Healing family. During the Second World War it served as a hospital for US troops. The subsequent division into two ownerships has not harmed the building externally, and it has retained the best of its internal layout and detail. An engraving by George Rowe of around 1840 shows that the south front already had the slight extension at the right-hand end, suggesting that the major extensions were undertaken in the early 19th century.