Woolhanger Manor With Music Room

Woolhanger Manor with Music Room is a large free-standing house with an attached music room, located near Lynton in Devon. The main house dates from the mid to late 19th century but has earlier origins. The music room, linked to the house by a corridor and wing, was added in 1894.

The house is constructed of rendered rubble with slate roofs. It follows a near-symmetrical plan, with gables facing southeast towards the moors and a recessed centre marking the former main entrance. The two-storey house range features various casements in plain reveals. On the garden or entrance front, a notable three-light Gothic casement with interlaced pointed heads sits in deep-set reveals with segmental pointed heads on either side of the central recessed bay. This bay contains a glazed conservatory with a lean-to slate roof. The right gable of the original range has an external gable stack.

The later entrance range, added with the music room, is a single storey with a low-pitched slate roof carrying decorative clay ridges. Four large three-light casements with transoms run across the front; the transom lights have geometrical bar glazing, replaced in 1993. Centred among these is a fine ashlar doorway in 16th-century Renaissance style, featuring pilasters and scrolls. A large projecting keystone sits over the arched opening, with a shaped pediment bearing a central shell motif beneath a ball finial. Heraldic figures flank the doorway. The panelled doors are set beneath a fanlight with glazing-bars forming near-square panes in tinted glass, with a moulded architrave rising on pilasters with channelled capitals. Above the doorway, set back on the roof-slope, is a prominent gabled dormer forming a flat canted bow.

A gabled link at an angle connects the house to the music room. The music room is designed in Free Tudor style and is octagonal in plan, with a steep pyramidal slate roof carrying a prominent square lantern with lower hipped ends inflected to the octagon. Four large four-light windows with stone ovolo-mould members occupy the faces of the octagon. Each window has two transoms and flat four-centred heads to the lights at the upper two levels, set flush in the walls. The windows are currently unglazed, the decorative glass having been removed. Above the windows runs a simple mould beneath a deep frieze band. On the northwest side is a plain rectangular external stack; the corresponding stack on the opposite side has been cut back to eaves level. A projecting bay on the northeast, formerly containing the organ, extends from the main octagonal form. The roof, with swept eaves, is laid in slate with two bands of darker colour incorporated.

The interior contains much late 19th-century detailing of high quality, including a pine staircase. The later entrance range comprises two compartments with a compartmental ceiling that includes stone corbels and is divided by an arched screen with two bold columns to the left. The music room has plastered walls with a dado rail. On each side is a very large stone hooded fireplace over a four-centred moulded opening, with heavy projecting mantels carried on corbels and richly embellished. The upper part of each hood displays the Carew coat of arms with the motto NIL CONSCRIRE TIBI. The timber floor is undergoing restoration. The windows lack glass except in the lantern, where tinted panes have been carefully restored. The roof is carried on elaborately braced and intersecting flying timber trusses with curved braces set in rectangular panels and carried down to carved corbels in the corners of the octagon. A concrete block temporary partition has been inserted at the entrance end. Opposite is a plain opening leading to the former organ gallery, slightly raised from the main floor level.

This is a remarkable enterprise of considerable architectural interest. The form and detail of the music room, unexpectedly encountered on the edge of the open moors, represent a notable survival. At the time of inspection, the music room was undergoing slow restoration.