Glenthorne Including Adjoining Game Larder And Courtyard Wall

Country house built circa 1829-30 for the Reverend Walter Stevenson Halliday, with kitchens enlarged in 1839 and a library added in 1846. The building underwent further alterations and additions in the mid-19th century. It is constructed of uncoursed stone with limestone ashlar dressings, some painted, and features gable-ended slate roofs.

The house has an irregular plan comprising a main range, a library wing to the right, a former conservatory to the left (rebuilt probably in the mid-19th century), service ranges to the rear, and a former service tower. The design is in the Tudor Gothic style, with 2 storeys, a 1-storey former conservatory, and a 3-stage service tower.

Exterior features include a moulded plinth, moulded cornice and coped parapets with finials to the apices. The roofs have various ridge and lateral stacks with painted circular and octagonal terracotta shafts.

The south-east entrance front presents an asymmetrical composition. The projecting gabled entrance wing is positioned off-centre to the left, with a 1-storey range adjoining to the left and a larger gable set back off-centre to the right. The library wing projects slightly to the right. Windows consist of 2 and 3-light mullioned and transomed wooden sashes with octagonal pattern cast-iron and wooden glazing bars (formerly said to have been painted copper) and returned hoodmoulds.

The entrance wing features a trefoil-headed lancet to the attic with moulded cill and hoodmould with carved stops. The first-floor canted oriel window comprises 1:2:1 lights with quatrefoil panels below, a corbelled base with alternating carved devices, moulded cornice and parapet with moulded coping. The entrance itself is a moulded Tudor-arched opening with returned hoodmould and a nail-studded boarded door.

The 1-storey range to the left was formerly a conservatory, as shown in old prints. It has a central canted bay of 1:3:1 lights. Above the gable is a lancet with hoodmould. An octagonal wooden Gothic cupola with a tented lead cap and wrought-iron finial crowns this section.

The gable set back to the right of this wing contains an attic lancet, a 3-light front-floor window, and a ground-floor canted bay of 1:2:1 lights.

The library wing, added to the right, is clearly distinguished by a straight joint at its junction with the earlier work. It consists of a central first-floor 3-light window flanked by cross windows and a central ground-floor canted bay of 1:3:1 lights. The right-hand gable-end has an attic lancet, a 3-light first-floor window, and a ground-floor canted bay. A stone dated "Nov 4/1846" marks this addition. A large external stack rises at the rear of the library range.

The north-east garden front features a hipped dormer, a first-floor 3-light casement flanked by cross windows, and French casements with a Tudor-arched entrance. A gabled block in the angle has an attic lancet, a 3-light first-floor window, and a ground-floor canted bay. The right-hand return front has a first-floor Tudor-arched cast-iron window with small octagonal panes and ogee-tracery in the head. The gable end of the rear wing displays an attic lancet, a first-floor 3-light window, and a ground-floor canted bay.

The service ranges to the south-west include a 3-stage clock tower with a 6-panelled door at the base, trefoil-headed lancets with hoodmoulds, and an octagonal wooden Gothic cupola with a tented lead cap. A clock is positioned on the top stage to the north-west. A hollow-chamfered Tudor-arched kitchen doorway with carved spandrels, returned hoodmould and boarded door provides access to the kitchen. A carved boar's head above the door bears a Latin inscription, with dates of 4 November 1820 (possibly 1829) and 3 May 1831, though the inscription was largely illegible at the time of survey in July 1987.

The game larder is built into the hillside to the rear of the kitchen. It has a pair of 2-light windows with gauze and segmental brick-arched heads flanking a central 6-panelled door with a segmental brick-arched head. The gable above features coping and a raised stone shield in the centre, dated "July/1858". A gabled cupola and pitched-roofed link connect the game larder to the kitchen.

A service courtyard to the rear is bounded by a wall with a pair of Tudor-arched openings.

Interior features include largely complete early 19th-century fixtures and fittings. Doorways are 4-panelled with Tudor-arched heads, trefoil-panelled spandrels and moulded architraves. Marble chimneypieces and moulded cornices are throughout.

The library is particularly fine, featuring curved walls, curved grained doors in each corner, wainscot panelling, a window seat and large neo-Jacobean panelling.

The main staircase is a curving single-flight cantilevered design with an open string, cut brackets, barleysugar balusters (one per tread), a moulded handrail, a wreathed newel and an oval top light with coving and decorative plasterwork.

The former conservatory to the left of the entrance incorporates much 17th-century joinery, including a back staircase with turned balusters, moulded handrail and carving. It contains a fireplace with a 17th-century ovolo-moulded wooden lintel.

Reverend Halliday acquired the Glenthorne estate in 1829 and began building the house shortly thereafter. His design was significantly influenced by buildings illustrated in P. F. Robinson's Rural Architecture: or a Series of Designs for Ornamental Cottages, published in 1823. His personal copy of this publication remained in the possession of the Halliday family at the time of survey. According to local tradition, an inscribed "decision stone" marks the location in the hills above the house where Reverend Halliday decided to build Glenthorne, though it was not located during the July 1987 survey.

The house stands in ornamental gardens at the front of the hills where they descend to the coast. The estate includes an ice house and lime kilns situated over the county boundary in Somerset, which are listed separately for the parish of Oare.