Undermount

Undermount is a vernacular house of one and two storeys with early 19th-century origins but earlier foundations, architect unknown. It stands in the Lakes area near Rydal, Ambleside.

The building is constructed of stone beneath pitched slate roofs with a rendered front elevation. The plan is virtually an inverted T-shape with a protruding front porch.

The rendered front south-east elevation presents two storeys with three bays to the house and an attached former barn to the right. A central single-storey porch with a side entrance beneath a pitched roof projects forward. Windows throughout feature copper diamond panes with stone lintels, sills and hoodmoulds. A gable between the left and central bays finishes with a circular chimney stack rising from a projecting square base. A projecting square chimney stack rises above the central and right bays, and two cross-axial chimney stacks rise from a square base above the gable at the north-east end of the house. The attached former barn has a stable door with a window of copper diamond panes to its left on the gable end. A timber lintel sits above the stable door with a dripstone above that spans both the stable door and window. The former barn's upper storey contains a window matching those of the house.

The south-west elevation is single storey with three bays, all with copper diamond window panes. The right bay is a projecting gable with a central window and circular chimney stack on a square base. The central bay is set back beneath overhanging roofs and contains the entrance door with an adjacent window. A squat ridge chimney stack stands at the junction between the central and left bays. The left bay has a central window with a square chimney stack from which two cross-axial chimneys rise.

The north-west elevation is single storey with three bays. The right bay is a projecting gable with a blocked doorway; its left return rises to one and two storeys with copper diamond window panes with stone sills and lintels. A butt joint marks the transition from one to two storeys. Bays two and three extend at right angles as single storey, forming the rear of the former barn. The right bay contains two windows; the left bay is gabled and contains the former entrance to the barn's hayloft, now a blocked door beneath a stone lintel. The barn's north-east gable elevation has narrow windows with copper diamond panes together with a timber mullion window to the upper storey.

The interior layout reflects the building's complex evolution. Access on the south-west elevation leads into an upper ground floor hallway lit by a half-glazed door and a splay window with shutters and moulded architrave. The hallway features a ceiling rose, moulded plaster coving and a staircase descending to the lower ground floor. A panelled door opens into a rear study room. A segmental arch connects the hallway to the front portion of the house, where panelled doors with moulded architraves give access to a corner room and a central room. The corner room contains two windows with shutters and moulded architraves matching those in the hallway, a window seat and a modern fire surround. The central room has a wall cupboard with panelled doors, two windows with shutters and a fireplace. A corridor provides access to a master bedroom occupying the former barn's hayloft, which contains a window with a seat. The corridor ends at a bathroom in which the bath is set within an alcove formerly the doorway to the hayloft. A small room off the corridor to the rear contains a window with shutters and seat, a panelled door and a fireplace now converted into a small cupboard.

A simple staircase with stick balusters and a wall-mounted wooden handrail descends from the hallway to the older part of the house on the lower ground floor. The staircase leads to a corridor serving a modernised kitchen and separate pantry with stone sconces. The kitchen has chamfered ceiling beams and is entered by a timber plank door. Adjacent is a corridor leading to a heavy timber-planked front door with metal strap hinges. A front room off this corridor contains a fireplace, a spice cupboard and exposed ceiling beams. A rear corridor from this room gives access to a rear storeroom with ceiling beams and a passage now used as a utility room, with a small window at its far end thought to occupy the position of an earlier doorway. This passage appears to have given access to the earlier house. A stable on the opposite side of the former passage entry is entered via a timber door with strap hinges and contains stalls, a cobble floor and wall-mounted brackets for hanging equipment.

Undermount has been part of the Rydal Estate since the 16th century, when it may have been known as 'Greens'. It is thought to have originally been a single-storey building, enlarged by a single-storey extension on its south side in the 17th century. An undated etching shows the building considerably extended with an L-shaped plan created by construction of a two-storey addition that created a new upper ground floor entered from the south-west side, while the existing lower ground floor continued to be entered from the south-east side. At the time of the etching the building was an inn called the 'Hare and Hounds', with a barn forming one arm of the 'L' and living accommodation forming the other.

An extension to the house was built for John Carter in 1827; it is not known whether the L-shaped work is Carter's extension or if a later addition to the living accommodation on the north-west side is his work. This building work prompted William Wordsworth, who lived at nearby Rydal Mount from 1813 to his death in 1850, to write to the landowner Lady le Fleming complaining that Mr Carter had been allowed to build when she had not allowed Wordsworth himself to build in the Rashfield (Dora's Field) for his friend Miss Fenwick. During the 19th or early 20th century the barn's hayloft was converted into domestic accommodation. A window adjacent to the barn's stable door was created out of a blocked door thought to have originally been a side passage giving access to the early house. Map evidence from 1898 onwards suggests the building's plan has remained constant since that time.

Canon Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley (1851–1920), a founder member of the National Trust, and his wife rented Undermount for a short period, probably prior to 1915 when he purchased the nearby Allan Bank at Grasmere. During their tenancy the present bathroom served as a chapel.

Undermount is listed at Grade II as a good example of an evolved Lakeland vernacular building with legible pre-19th-century layout and numerous surviving early features. The 19th-century extensions are themselves of intrinsic architectural interest, undertaken in a competent and sympathetic manner with many surviving features. The building's historic interest is further enhanced by its mention in a letter written by William Wordsworth.