Tythegston Court

Tythegston Court

This is a Georgian-style house built around an incorporated medieval hall. The main structure consists of a 2-storey entrance range with a 3-storey tower on its left side, short wings extending behind on both sides, and a lower 2-storey service block further back that encloses a rectangular courtyard behind the main house. The exterior is pebble-dashed stone (concealing evidence of earlier construction), with hipped slate roofs behind a projecting bracketed cornice and stone chimney stacks.

The south-facing entrance front is of 8 bays (1:6:1), with the right-hand end bay marking a proposed tower intended to balance the rebuilt medieval tower to the left. Sash windows, some with small-pane glazing, are set in moulded segmental-headed architraves with rusticated heads in the lower storey, above a plat band. A glazed porch with 4 Tuscan columns, entablature and cornice with triglyphs frames the front door, which is half-lit with raised fielded panels and has Tuscan pilasters with a moulded cornice on consoles. The tower to the left has a single shallow angle buttress on its right side.

The 6-bay east garden front features a blind arcade in the lower storey with roundels to the spandrels, and sash windows with small panes in the 3 lower left bays. The west front shows the tower with a half-lit panelled door in its lower right, a central window with 2-centred head and leaves in the spandrels under a hood mould, and hornless sash windows to each storey on the left side. The 2-window west wing behind the tower has former 17th-century 2-light windows with hood moulds in the lower storey, now replaced with casement windows following loss of the original mullions, and taller cross windows in the upper storey.

Behind the west wing, the service block includes a 2-window cottage with casements below and sashes above. To the left of a ridge stack is the cottage doorway with a replaced door, flanked above by 2 upper-storey windows and a barred opening below. The external rear elevation of the service block has a 3-bay central wing set back from and lower than the gable ends of the east and west wings. The centre contains a boarded door accessing a through-passage to the courtyard, flanked by cross windows. The upper storey has windows with shallow segmental heads, fixed panes to the right, louvered to centre and replaced to the left. The right gable end has kneelers of a former higher gable and 2 blind segmental arches, containing a barred window to the left and a boarded door with overlight to the right. The left gable end has similar arches with garage doors inserted, above which is a horned sash window.

The east service wing front, set back from the main east wing and formerly used as stable and coach house, has 5 horned sash windows in the upper storey under gablets right and left of centre. The lower storey has, at the left end, 3 blind round-headed arches with a half-lit door incorporating margin lights to the left and small sash windows to centre and right. To the right are 3 round openings with small-pane pivoting windows (one blind) flanking a doorway offset right under a round-headed arch with double panelled doors incorporating glazed panels.

Facing the courtyard, the east wing has a horned sash window beneath a blind arch to the right, a half-lit door to the left, and 4 bays with horned sashes under gablets in the upper storey and rusticated segmental heads in the lower storey. The north wing has a round-headed doorway to centre leading to a ramped through passage, above which is a blind panel. To the right is a small-pane casement above steps leading down to a cellar doorway under a segmental head. To the left of the passage is a boarded door reached by stone steps, with a fixed window further left.

A lean-to wing is attached behind the main house. Inside it is a Tudor-headed doorway to the right of a former stack, aligned with a doorway in the external wall and suggesting a passage backing onto the chimney. To its left is a horned sash, to its right the segmental head of another possible doorway. To the right of the lean-to is a boarded door flanked by casements in the upper storey, with a fixed window lower left and a shuttered window lower right. The rear of the main house has a projecting gabled bay facing the courtyard, with hornless sash windows to the attic and upper storeys. The left window partially cuts into a blind arch offset left in the lower storey, within which is a segmental-headed sash window to the ground floor. To the left of the gabled bay is a tripartite window under a blind arch incorporating a sash window in the centre.

The interior contains one of the most important 18th-century decorative schemes in the county. The entrance hall features Doric friezes to the cornices and above the doorways and fireplace. Family portraits are set into plaster ellipses under festoons, with two larger portraits framed in eared architraves. The stair has a wreathed handrail, turned balusters (2 per tread) and relief foliage to the strings. The landing has especially fine rococo plasterwork consisting of garlands, festoons and an elaborate ceiling rose. At the head of the stairs is a shield displaying the arms of Knight, but with a blank left to signify his separation from his wife.

The drawing room in the east wing was originally intended to be the library. Pairs of alcoves flank each side of the room with Corinthian pilasters. The fireplace has similar pilasters and a lintel with festoons and a shield.