Charlton House

ST52NW

CHARLTON MACKRELL CP ILCHESTER ROAD (East side)

5/36

Charlton House

17.4.59

GV II*

Detached house. Dated 1726, with later extensions. Local lias stone cut and squared with painted Ham stone dressings; hipped mansard roof covered with Welsh slates, behind low parapets; stone chimney stacks. 2 storeys with attics; west elevation of 7 bays, the end bays being set back and slightly lower. Plinth, string courses, low parapet with heavily moulded coping, rusticated quoins: bays 2 to 6 have 8-pane sash windows in bolection mould surrounds, the upper windows having segmental arched heads and apron-panels below, and between bays 3 and 4 and 4 and 5 semi-circular arched niches in matching architraves; to lower bay 4 the entrance, with pair 4 panel doors in bolection mould architrave, with open porch having Doric columns and entablature: dormer windows in roof over bays 3, 4 and 5: bay 1 has a 16-pane sash window in plain opening above, and below a 3-light leaded mullioned and transomed window with 3 centre arched head; to bay 7 blind panels at both levels, with semi-circular arched niche with keystone and impost blocks below and segmental arched with apron-panel above. Modern extension to north gable; single-storey bay window on south gable, and later lean-to extension to rear (also linked is the Dovecote, qv). Interior has been modified, and part of the hall partition has been renewed, otherwise there remain the 6 fielded panel doors, and the staircase, which appears to be re-used from elsewhere (tradition says from Manor Farmhouse, qv). North west root has ceiling cornice and frieze, presumably C18, as does the south east room. Attics very little altered: orginally a double roof plan, the main structure still survives below the Mansard; some plank and muntin partitioning; the servants stairs giving access to this unaltered. The property, then known as Lanchers, bacame property of the Lyte family of Lytes Cary (qv) in 1540, and it was Thomas Lyte (died 1748) who built this house: the Lyte arts feature on the rainwater stackheads. John Jerritt, owner 1800-06, diverted the Kingweston Road further west, keeping the old road as the carriage drive.(Victoria County History, Volume III, 1974).

Listing NGR: ST5294829070