Sydenham Manor House

Sydenham Manor House is a manor house with early to mid 16th-century elements to the left return wall and projection, refronted and rebuilt after 1613. It stands on the north-west side of Bath Road in Bridgwater.

The house is constructed of blue lias roughly coursed limestone rubble with Ham Hill stone dressings. The roof is 19th-century Welsh slate with carved kneelers to moulded coping and stone stacks set diagonally with ashlar flues. The building forms an L-plan with a stair projection at an angle and a rear right service wing. The front north block has a left gable-end stack and porch to the left of a large external lateral stack that heats the hall. The rear block also has gable-end stacks. The building is two storeys and attic, with the north front presenting a five-window range. The ground floor has moulded string courses and stone-mullioned ovolo-moulded four-light windows, with three-light windows above. A similar two-light mid 19th-century window appears to the right of the three-storey porch. The porch itself has a moulded architrave to a hollow-chamfered basket-arched doorway with the arms of Perceval and Cave on the foliate spandrels. Inside the porch is a reset 16th-century round-arched inner door with lozenge stops to the label mould, together with a mid 19th-century cornice and foliate boss. To the right of the porch is a large external lateral stack. The right return, left gable end and rear are similarly detailed with matching windows. A Tudor-arched doorway with sunk spandrels adjoins a stair turret. The ground-floor rear contains a reset early to mid 16th-century three-light window with four-centred arch heads, roll-moulded mullions and casement-moulded architrave with lozenge stops to the label mould. A three-storey projection to the left return has similar early to mid 16th-century two-light windows, including one on the first floor with a dragon and dog to the label stops. A similar four-light first-floor window sits above a restored chamfered three-light window with label mould. The left return has a chamfered square-headed window and a 16th-century lancet above with sunk spandrels to a four-centred arch. Two 19th-century inserted larger lancets appear to the rear, and a 16th-century quatrefoil light is positioned at the attic. An early 20th-century one-storey extension has been added to the front.

The interior has been heavily remodelled in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with panelled walls and doors. The former hall to the front retains a herring-bone tile fireback and ovolo-moulded architrave to a four-centred arch with sunk spandrels, now painted with a 19th-century overmantel. A passage from the rear door of the hall, opposite the porch, contains two chamfered four-centred arched doorways to the kitchen on the left with a chamfered beam. The rear room has a similar fire surround with primitive caryatids to the overmantel. A restored early 17th-century plaster ceiling features lozenge and quatrefoil panels with thistles, rosettes, fleur-de-lys and moulded cornicing, with some reset 17th-century panelling. The early 17th-century closed-string dogleg stair has a moulded handrail, pyramidal caps and pendants to heavy turned newels. It was restored and rebuilt in 1928 using chestnut wood, though only the heavy turned balusters are original oak. On the first floor is a 17th-century hollow-chamfered four-centred arched doorway and a stop-chamfered arched wooden door frame with a 17th-century planked door to the left wing. The fireplace in the room above the kitchen has a Tudor arch to a moulded surround with foliate spandrels and a late 19th-century enriched cornice. A small room to the right has an ovolo-moulded fireplace, with no access to the rear room. The second floor has a chamfered-arched doorframe to the right. Roof trusses were not available for inspection but are probably of collar-truss type.

The original building dates to approximately 1500 and was built for Thomas Percival. A late 16th-century oak lantern finial from the old staircase is preserved in the Blake Museum. The building is remarkably centralised in plan form for the early 17th century, with the stair turret positioned at the angle with the rear wing.