Manor House, King Ina'S Palace

Manor House, King Ina's Palace

A substantial manor house of complex growth, possibly dating from the 14th century with a 16th-century crosswing, subsequently remodelled and extended during the 19th century. The building is constructed in ham stone ashlar with plain clay-tiled roofs mostly between or behind moulded coped gables and stone chimney stacks.

The plan is irregular. The west wing is mostly two storeys with an attic and formerly featured a hall rising through to the roof. The crosswing at the east end is two storeys, with various additions to the north-east comprising two storeys and single-storey sections with attic space. The south elevation displays four bays.

The windows are mullioned in a 15th-century pattern but mostly of 19th-century insertion. Bays 1 to 3 have two-light windows with upper windows of four-centre-arched form with cusped tracery, set under coped gables. The lower windows are flat-arched with quatrefoil spandril tracery and transomed, positioned under continuous labels stepped up over each opening. Bay 4 features a two-storey angled bay window against a projecting gable containing 2+3+2 lights on each floor, with matching tracery. This bay has a plinth, corner buttresses with offsets and a crenellated parapet masking a hipped tiled roof. Between the windows are traceried panels each bearing two shields. In the west return of this projection are flat-arched chamfer-mullioned windows of three lights on both main levels, with a two-light window in an attic gable. Between bays 2 and 3 a projecting chimney stack with offsets carries a panel bearing a shield at higher level. In lower bay 3, the window is positioned to the left with a four-centre-arched doorway to the right, containing a 19th-century part-glazed door set in a moulded rectangular recess with carved spandrels.

The west gable has central projecting chimney stacks with matching ground floor windows, a single-light window to the first floor and two single windows to the attic. A later extension extends from the north-west corner, set at a lower level.

The east elevation is mostly 19th-century in character. The main gable towards the south features chamfer-mullioned windows in chamfered recesses with separate labels: three lights to the first floor and attic, and a small two-light window at the crown of the gable. A mezzanine window of four lights and a ground floor window of two lights are also present. The projecting section southwards has a projecting stack. Immediately north of the main east gable stands a circular turret, probably 19th-century, with a conical roof. An open shouldered arch at its base forms an open porch, with single cusped lancets set at different levels along the line of a stairway.

Projecting eastwards just north of the tower is a single-storey wing with attic, matching the tower, featuring three three-light mullioned windows in the south wall. In the east gable of this unit is a two-light window with label, over which is a recess containing a sculpted figure. A further link northwards, with porch, connects to an otherwise separate single-storey-with-attic wing, possibly the old kitchen. This section has a roof of wider span and thus higher ridge, with a single-light window and a part-blocked four-centre-arched doorway in the south wall. In the east gable, which has a very steep pitch, is a mullioned and transomed 15th-century traceried window under a pointed-arched label with plain stops. Further, presumably later, buildings extend northwards, all forming a pleasant group.

The interior was not fully examined for the purposes of this record, but some medieval features survive. A notable four-centre-arched fireplace exists in the hall, finished with double-ogee moulding and carved spandrels, over which is a panel bearing two blank shields and the inscription 'pro omnibus te deum laudamus'. At least one of the hall windows is original, though probably relocated. Otherwise interior detail has been much altered. Engravings and photographs of the house prior to restoration survive in the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society Collection.