Poundisford Park

ST22SW 6/143

PITMINSTER CP, POUNDISFORD, Poundisford Park

25.2.55

GV I

Manor house, former detached kitchen now part of service courtyard, stable range. House and kitchen c1550 for William Hill, dining room wing added c1693, stable, coach house and barn dated 1717, service wing 1825. Roughcast over rubble, rubble plinth, exposed quoins, slate roofs, coped verges, ashlar stone stacks gable ends and centre. H-plan with entrance now on south front, north-east dining room wing, south-east service wing extending east to form south side of service courtyard, stable range east and former kitchen west. South front: 2 and a half storeys, all Tudor arch head hollow chamfered mullioned windows under hoodmoulds, irregular C19 fenestration gable ends, 3-bay centre, left gable end 2 single light windows under hoodmoulds, left one blocked, centre 3-light gabled windows flanking central rebuilt wall stack above quatrefoil pierced parapet, right gable single light, first floor centre 3-light windows flanking irregularly placed lancet and stair light, crested lead guttering and fine rain water head centre below gargoyle emptying into lead rainwater cistern dated 1671, left gable end unlit, centre 3-light window left, right Tudor arch head doorway with decorative spandrels to internal porch, moulded inner doorway: single bay re-entrant angle, right, left lit on each floor but originally 2-bay, now with blocked original windows on each floor and Tudor arch head doorway with C16 door, North front diagonal buttresses and 3-bay dining room with 12-pane sash windows, Interior: outstanding collection of original features and fittings. Screens passage with unusual turned baluster columns reminiscent of the window mullions at Cothelstone (qv), hexagonal lantern inserted and C17 doorways with coved cornice to closed gallery above with mullioned window. Ribbed plasterwork ceiling to hall with pendants and frieze, plasterwork Royal Coat of Arms at dais end, fine collection of late C16 and mid-late C17 plasterwork ceilings and cornices throughout house. C16 panelling to hall, moulded surrounds to fireplace and opening to stair turret adjoining, and oriels. C18 panelling in dining room with coeval cornice and chimney piece. Former detached kitchen, subsequently laundry, now restaurant; large bressumer beam to fireplace, partially cut and with inserted bread oven. Barn abutting converted to dwelling with stable and coach house range returned on east front dated 1717 in south gable end, The Hill family who built this house also were responsible for Poundisford Lodge lqv) to the north, both were built within the confines of Poundisford deer park that belonged to the episcopal castle of Taunton until the Dissolution. (Photographs in (Xii Country Life, June 17, 1916; August 4 and 11, 1934).

Listing NGR: ST2227020202