Godminster Manor

Godminster Manor is a manor house dating back to the 15th century, with significant alterations in the 18th century and early 20th century. It is constructed of local stone, with Doulting stone dressings; the west front is rendered. The roof is covered with stone slates, with coped gables and a parapet on the west side, and it features octagonal stone chimney stacks with moulded caps. The building has a solid "U" plan with a double roof to the rear.

The west front, which has 7 bays, presents a symmetrical 18th-century facade. It lacks a plinth and features plain ashlar pilasters and a low, plain cornice with a parapet. It has 12-pane sash windows in architraved surrounds with moulded cills, the lower windows having alternately triangular and segmental pediments. A central doorway, of early 20th-century design, is set in a bolection mould surround with a broken segmental pediment framing an urn, supported on ornate console brackets.

The south elevation displays Tudor character, although it has undergone 20th-century restoration. It includes buttresses to the bays and hollow-chamfered mullioned windows with flat heads, incised spandrils, and no labels. A three-light window is located below and a pair of two-light windows above the left-hand gable. The single-storey bays 1 and 2 have three-light mullioned and transomed windows. A cambered, moulded arched doorway is under a rectangular label bay 3, and bay 4 has a splay against a buttress, with a small stairwell window, a three-light window below, and a one-light window above. The east and north elevations are of 20th-century construction.

Inside, the entrance hall features a 20th-century staircase incorporating some 18th-century barley-sugar twist balusters and old handrailing. A plank and muntin partition, possibly relocated, is located at the head of the stairs. A small bolection mould fireplace is in the northwest corner room. The southwest corner room contains a good 15th-century moulded beam and panel ceiling. The Great Hall along the south side was damaged by fire around 1924; part of an earlier charred room survives, but is masked by a replacement ceiling. A fine 15th-century fireplace was uncovered in the early 20th century, featuring a moulded three-centre arch, reaching a crown of 1.7 metres and spanning 2.4 metres, with a quatrefoil bearing shield panels and other decorative carvings in the spandrils. A stone newel circular staircase, potentially from the 15th century, is built into the south wall.

The early history of the manor is little known; it later became part of the Ilchester estate. The west elevation was possibly designed by Nathaniel Ireson. The fireplace was restored after its rediscovery by A.J. Pictor, FRIBA, of Bruton, who may have been the architect for the early 20th-century restoration or the post-1924 fire reparations.