Coker Court

Coker Court is a manor house, now divided into several properties. It comprises a 15th-century core with a major 18th-century addition, extended around 1900. The 18th-century portion was designed by Sir William Chambers.

The building is constructed of ham stone rubble coursed masonry with ashlar dressings; the extension is rendered. The roofs are stone-tiled, pitched between coped gables with hipped ends on the extension. Stone chimney stacks, some rendered, project from the structure.

The north and east elevations are each of seven bays spanning one and two storeys with attics. The north elevation's first bay is the hipped end of the 18th-century portion, featuring a blind venetian window below and a semi-circular 3-light window above. Bay two, from the 15th century, contains an oriel with projecting gable, angled offset buttresses, and a pointed arched 2-light tracieried window with transom, diamond leaded panes, external ferramenta and hood mould. Bays three, four and five have similar windows separated by full-height offset buttresses. Bay six is a projecting porch with angled offset buttresses and a gable with coping and cross finial, featuring a 2-order pointed arched doorway with label square stopped and a 2-light traceried window with label above. Bay seven contains early 20th-century hollow chamfer mullioned windows with cusped arched lights, 5-light below and 3-light above.

The west gable has similar windows at both levels flanking a projecting chimney stack. Beyond this is a small projecting 1-bay wing with a small cambered arched doorway, a plain rectangular chamfered window alongside, and on the first floor a 15th or 16th-century window on the west gable. To the south and west is a 4-bay extension of circa 1900, originally a servants' wing and now a separate residence, with a return open colonnade harmonising with the earlier work.

The 18th-century block to the east, by Chambers, has a rendered façade of seven bays. The centre three bays project and are crowned by a pediment containing a semi-circular 3-light window, flanked by two pediemented dormer windows. The first-floor windows are 12-pane sashes; the ground-floor windows are also sashes, though the glazing bars have been removed.

Internally, the entrance is through a screens passage with chamfered pointed arches to the right. To the left are two semi-circular arches of an early 17th-century screen and gallery, built for Archdeacon Helyar, who purchased the manor in 1616. This screen is faced on the hall side with double Tuscan columns with lozenge decoration to the frieze and door arches.

The hall spans five bays and has an open arch-braced and windbraced collar trussed roof, somewhat restored around 1900. It contains a 17th-century fireplace matching the screen and an oriel to the north-east bay with a 15th-century flat beam and rib timber ceiling.

Stairs from the south-east corner lead to the main drawing room and staircase, both typical and fine 18th-century work. The stone cantilever stairs feature a good dentilled cornice ceiling above them. Two of the bedrooms reached by the stairs retain Chinese decoration—one with wallpaper, the other with fine Chinese-style lacquerwork on doors, fireplace and pelmets, though its wallpaper has been removed.

Coker Court is a very fine example in which either major portion would merit a high grading; the additional parts are of supporting interest and group value.