Nynehead Court And Wall Adjoining On North Side Of Forecourt

Nynehead Court is a country house, now a residential home for the elderly, with late medieval origins substantially rebuilt and enlarged in 1675, extended westward in the late 18th century, and further modified in the 19th and 20th centuries. It has courtyard plan layout, possibly originating as an open hall house running north-south with a detached kitchen to the north. The house was subsequently expanded with a porch on the west front, a rebuilt and extended lower end linking to a single-storey kitchen wing, and a south-east stair wing. A drawing room was added to the west and later connected to service buildings on the west front. The entrance was resited on the east front with internal alterations and redecoration occurring in the mid to late 20th century.

The exterior shows render grooved as ashlar over rubble, exposed in the service range, with a dado, flat string band, and dentil cornice to the 17th-century hipped slate roofs, and moulded cornices to similar 19th-century roofs. A brick stack stands to the right of the entrance, two 19th-century stacks appear on the south front, and two tall stacks in the north-east corner have a bell said to be dated 1747. The north-east kitchen wing was raised to two storeys, the south-east wing to three storeys, and the south range reroofed in the early to mid-19th century.

The east front comprises two storeys plus an attic centre with a two-storey kitchen wing set at an angle to the right and a three-storey staircase wing projecting to the left, arranged in bays of 3:1:4:1. Three gabled dormers with 20th-century casements pierce the roofline, one above the entrance and two to the right. The upper storeys have left moulded arch head sash windows with keystones, while the right elevation features 12-pane sash windows in moulded surrounds with keystones. The ground floor window to the right and another in the re-entrant angle are blocked. The entrance bay is slightly recessed and contains a late 17th-century ovolo-moulded Venetian-style window with a carved keystone. There is also a stair light window (partially blocked) rising through the two lower storeys to the right and cutting through the string course, with evidence of two further blocked windows in the re-entrant angle. A panelled battened door of uncertain date forms the entrance, with a moulded arch head inner doorway featuring a half-glazed door beyond. The end bay is masked by an archway and wall.

The garden front displays three to four bays, two storeys on the left and three on the right under the same roof. The second floor right has two-light casements while the remainder have 12-pane sashes. A single-storey 20th-century glazed infill abutts the left side, linking to a gable end of a single-storey red sandstone random rubble range with a segmental-headed window and rectangular opening in the gable end. A red brick wall on the north side of the forecourt includes nesting boxes on its rear elevation.

The interior has been much altered. The porch (now a nurses' dining room) contains an ogee-headed niche, while the hall features a chamfered 4-centred arch head outer doorway and an arched inner doorway on its west side. The north side displays a segmental-headed pediment with keystone inscribed "E S(andford) E 1675", with a broken segmental pediment visible on the rear elevation. The kitchen wing contains chamfered beams with step and runout stops. The east front roof features early 18th-century panelling, and a dogleg stair has turned balusters with a moulded handrail. Upper floor rooms have been subdivided, with a carved overmantel dated 1633 above the dining room (though this carving may be 19th century) and plasterwork wreath visible. The drawing room contains a fine white marble chimney piece dating to around 1760, decorated with dancing figures. A number of early 19th-century doors remain in situ.

Nynehead Court was the home of the Wyke family during the Middle Ages and was purchased from them by Martin Sandford in 1590. His descendants held the property until the 1920s, and both families made significant contributions to the Church of All Saints to the south-east. The house became a residential home for the elderly in 1949.