Quantock Lodge And Forecourt

Quantock Lodge is a country house with a walled forecourt set in wooded grounds, now part of Quantock School. It was built in 1857 by Henry Clutton for Henry Labouchere, the 1st Lord Taunton, with some additions around 1864 and 20th-century internal alterations, including a classroom block to the northwest. The building features snecked local stone, a chamfered plinth, bevelled cill-strings, moulded cornices, and gables, with the principal gables shaped. The roofs are tiled, with occasional parapets and crenellation, hipped breaks to the southeast and southwest, finials, and off-ridge ashlar stacks with chamfered corners. A roughly central crenellated octagonal turret with an ogee lantern adds to its Free Tudor style, characterized by determined asymmetry on a basic L-plan, with bow and bay windows.

The house has two storeys and attics, with stone mullioned windows, some featuring transoms, most having 4-centred arch heads, and includes some leaded lights and stained glass. The main entrance is to the north, accessed through a projecting two-storey porch with a 3-centred archway and paired plank doors. The terraced forecourt has irregularly coursed and squared rubble retaining walls, pierced ashlar and rubble parapets with dressed copings, and to the west, a mock-medieval gateway with an entrance arch featuring an achievement set over, plank gates, and a tiled hood. Opposite the main entrance to the house, a flight of stone steps leads down to a sunken throughway with paired wrought-iron gates.

Inside, the interior showcases an elaborate mix of medieval and Tudor styles, with tile floors, coffered and ornamental plaster ceilings, an oak open well staircase, and fireplaces, many adorned with fine chimneypieces and overmantels. The library features shelving.