Lillycombe House And Retaining Wall To Terrace

SS84NW OARE CP LILLYCOMBE 2/36 Lillycombe House and retaining wall to terrace - GV II House. 1912, south front altered mid C20. Designed by Lady Lovelace, assisted by C F A Voysey. Roughcast over rubble, hipped West Somerset slate roofs, slight bell-cast, overhanging eaves, bargeboard to gabled bays, large square roughcast stack right, tall octagonal roughcast stack rising from eaves left. L-plan. Two storeys, asymmetrical 4-bay south front, cambered lintels to many paned casements, gabled projecting bays first and third left flanking hipped roof dormer, 2-light casement to right, ground floor caseaents flanking single storey hipped roof garden room, 1:4:1 lights set on retaining wall of terrace, 2 casements to right. Pevsner describes a "handsome south verandah on stone pillars" as 'unmistakably' the work of Voysey so it may be assumed that the sun room has been completed since 1958. Entrance on north front via gabled wing, unusual in that the gable end wall and returns are higher than the roof level behind but slated for about one metre to conceal this design fault. Interior: disappointing, apart from stick stair rising in entrance hall and one or two Voysey designed ventilation grills the house lacks contemporary fittings. Forms part of good group with buildings to east. It is assured from the awkwardness of the entrance facade gable that Voysey was called in quite late to assist Lady Lovelace with her designs. (Brandon Jones et al, CFA Voysey, 1978; Pevsner, Buildings of England, South and West Somerset, 1958).

Listing NGR: SS8213447365