Monmouth House And Attached Walls And Railings

This is a substantial house, likely built between 1770 and 1790. It is constructed of stucco with a painted stone plinth and dressings, and has a slate roof with stepped stone copings and brick stacks to the gable ends. The house follows a double-depth plan with a central entrance and stairhall. The main façade is symmetrical, featuring five windows across two storeys plus an attic. A flight of steps leads to a six-panel front door, which is topped by a decorative fanlight within a doorcase featuring a cornice and roughly-soldered metal columns. Above the door is a tripartite sash window. All windows have stone sills and keystones; the side windows are 6/6-pane sashes. There is a cornice and low parapet with swept corners. The roof has been raised to accommodate a full-height attic with three 2/2-pane sash windows within a mansard roof. A one-bay link block connects to Chard School, featuring 6/6-pane sashes over a through entry. The rear elevation has a keyed semi-circular stairlight.

The interior retains significant original features. These include panelled shutters, 18th-century architraves, early 19th-century panelled doors, and late 18th-century mahogany doors on the ground floor. The entrance hall has a late 18th-century frieze decorated with wheat ears and bucraniums (ox skull decoration) below a moulded cornice and elliptical arches with enriched egg-and-dart carving on fluted pilasters. The rear stairhall has late 19th-century double doors, a mid-18th-century modillioned cornice, and an open-well staircase with a ramped handrail. A ground-floor room to the left has a mid-19th-century cast-iron ceiling rose, late 18th-century panelling and a fluted dado rail, while a further room to the left has a late 18th-century wheatear and bucrania frieze. The room to the right has a mid-19th-century marble fireplace with enriched consoles and a later inserted entry to a rear room. On the first floor, original features include an 18th-century cornice and fretwork dado rail in the centre, along with neo-classical fireplaces and cornicing.

The house is set within a forecourt enclosed by spear-headed railings with urn finials, which stand on a low stone plinth. The railings are supported by Ham Hill stone piers featuring recessed panels, a raised key-pattern band, swags, and a moulded cornice. These piers are linked to the house by high, painted rubblestone walls with flat coping. The piers and railings are listed as a subsidiary feature.