Compton Castle

Compton Castle is a substantial country house of square plan arranged around a central octagonal stair hall. The front, eastern portions are built of Ham stone ashlar, while the rear parts are of coursed rubblestone. The roofs are Welsh slate with stone stacks. Most of the principal windows have leaded lights, the majority thought to date from work carried out around 1911 or later replacements, though an original pair of wooden sash frames with lozenge lights survives in the western first-floor window on the south front.

Plan and Layout

The house revolves around the central octagonal stair hall, which rises through two storeys. Rooms open directly from the hall on the ground floor, and on the first floor from a landing surrounding the hall. Public rooms occupy the eastern side of the ground floor, with kitchens and service rooms to the west. A projection extends from the south-east corner, and a two-storey range now containing the reading room extends from the north-east corner.

Exterior

The principal eastern portion receives mock-defensive treatment. Round turrets mark the four corners, while the entrance bay at the centre of the eastern elevation has a large square tower with a round turret to the rear. Crenellations run around this eastern part, and the towers feature machicolation and arrow loops. The central entrance tower is fronted by a tall porch with a pointed-arched opening and a crenellated parapet with crocketed finial, which provides a balcony to the central front bedroom. This room is lit by a tall single window with a pointed segmental arch with hollow spandrels beneath a hoodmould.

On either side of the entrance is a canted bay window, the ground-floor openings having segmental pointed arches with Y-tracery to the central windows. These bays were raised to two storeys in the early 20th century, the upper storeys having square-headed openings with pointed lights. The crenellated parapets which originally topped the single-storey windows were replaced at the higher level.

Both south and north fronts received new bay windows between the corner turrets in the early 20th century. In each case, a double-height square bay with setback buttresses topped by crocketed finials was added to the east, the six-light windows separated by blank panels. On the south elevation, a single-storey canted bay with arched windows of intersecting Y-tracery and a crenellated parapet was apparently constructed to match the original one on the north elevation. The oriel window to the south-east projection is probably an early 20th-century addition. The crenellations to the rear wings were added in the early 20th century.

To the north are two service blocks, each with a hipped roof and mullioned windows with hoodmoulds. Some change has occurred to the fenestration of the north elevation of the north-west block since the mid-20th century, with a new central window to the first floor and the enlargement of the ground-floor window. Between these two windows, at the centre of the north elevation, the rear entrance is set back within a single-storey block fronted by a small crenellated porch. Further back rises the two-storey main house, with a large pointed arch with trefoil tracery lighting the stair hall. At the north-west corner is a two-storey block with large upper windows lighting the reading room and an outside stair to a north entrance. This block is thought to have undergone some rebuilding in the 20th century.

Interior

The vaulted eastern porch is fitted with panelled benches and leads through oak double doors with linenfold panels and trefoil traceried glazing beneath a corresponding fanlight to the reception hall, which has an original ribbed ceiling with bosses.

The octagonal stair hall, entered through the reception hall, is a showpiece of Gothic stonework. It has a shallow ribbed vault with a central boss of oak leaves, surrounded by glazed panels. The corbels are foliate, as are the capitals to the compound piers of the doorway leading from the reception hall to the stair hall. An octagonal arcade encloses the ground-floor passageway and supports the gallery. The pointed-arched openings are separated by trefoil-panelled buttresses carrying the gabled landing newels above, which have foliate finials. Between paired buttresses are trefoil-headed lancet niches. The outer wall of the arcade has 20th-century Gothic timber panelling, which continues up the stair and around the gallery. The start of the Imperial stair is marked by tall trefoil-panelled and gabled newel piers. The iron balustrade takes the form of Gothic tracery with trefoiled lancets and quatrefoils and continues around the gallery. The stair divides at the large traceried window with 20th-century glazing, containing armorial and memorial stained glass associated with the Hunt, Mason, and Hitchens families, all owners of the house in the 19th and 20th centuries. Beneath it, on the half landing, a small simple fireplace is incorporated in the stonework.

The drawing room and study are entered from the reception hall through openings with original trefoil panelling. The drawing room, to the south-east, has a ceiling in the form of a shallow vault with radiating ribs having foliate bosses and corbels. The linenfold panelling is of uncertain date and not original to the room. The elaborate carved stone chimneypiece has an ornate ogival hood to the opening and carved saints beneath a castellated parapet. It is thought to be Continental 15th century, corresponding with the description in an 1845 inventory of a "Handsome carved castellated statuary & black & gold Chimney Piece". The aperture to the original east window has trefoil panelling and is framed by ribbing.

The study ceiling is similar to that in the drawing room, as is the decoration of the east window aperture, though here there are quatrefoils above the panels. This room has late 20th-century Gothic panelling and chimneypiece.

Entered from the stair hall, the dining room to the south has early 20th-century decoration in 18th-century style, with plaster mouldings including an oval of fruit and flowers to the ceiling and swags to the frieze, and carved drops of fruit and flowers set within some panels. The chimneypiece and doorcase have matching early 18th-century details, with bolection moulded architraves and swag and head friezes. This room saw some reconfiguration at the time of the creation of the bay window and the room's decoration.

The morning room, to the north, was probably decorated at the same time and has an elaborate Jacobethan ceiling of geometrical ribbing. The panelling in this room is of limed oak, with Corinthian columns framing a bolection-moulded marble fireplace. The finely carved detailing to the pulvinated laurel frieze and the spandrels of the inset south cupboard suggests the incorporation of some reclaimed late 17th-century material.

On the first floor, the lancet panelling of the octagonal gallery has a timber frieze with Classical scenes of uncertain date above. The columned doorframes leading to small lobbies preceding the bedrooms are thought to be original. The central, eastern bedroom is entered directly from the gallery. Its ceiling is similar to those on the ground floor, with radiating ribs, corbels and central boss, and the opening to the balcony has lancet panelling. The room contains a number of reclaimed fittings. The remaining bedrooms in the principal portion of the house retain few visible original features.

The rear service wings retain no original features on the ground floor or in the bedrooms on the first floor. At the north-west corner is the library, which has an old stone bolection-moulded fireplace and late 20th-century panelling. Leading from this, further north, is the reading room, a late 20th-century conversion with late 20th-century fittings, including panelling, a stone fireplace, and a queen-post roof with cusped windbraces.