Mounton House

Mounton House

A Grade II* listed building constructed around 1600, built of squared rock-faced random red sandstone, timber framing with plaster panels, and slate hanging, with Westmorland green-slate roofs (some replaced with concrete tiles). The building is E-shaped in plan, comprising a hall with two cross-wings and a central storeyed porch, designed in the manner of the early 17th century. The arrangement appears intended to suggest an Elizabethan development of a medieval hall. The structure is two storeys and attics, with single-storey courtyard wings, and fronts onto an enclosed entrance courtyard with wings projecting forward on either side.

The entrance elevation features two gabled wings with two 2-light windows each, flanking a 3-bay hall range. The central entrance is marked by a tower with a 17th-century style strapped plank door with diamond strips and roundels in relief. This is flanked by 2-light windows over timber framing and covered by a slated pentice. Above is short and tall panels of timber framing and a 4-light attic window under a hipped roof. The central tower is flanked on the right by a 6-light continuous window over framing on each floor, while to the left the ground floor has a 4-light window with matching upper floors. All cross-wing windows are two 2-light windows on each floor with 4-light attic windows in the gables. The main range to the left has a 2-light and 4-light window on the first floor. All windows are oak-framed with ovolo mouldings and leaded quarries, a characteristic feature of the Tipping/Francis houses (as seen at Mathern Palace). The roof hips to the left. Six large stone stacks are visible from the front.

The south elevation and kitchen wing overlook a walled orchard and have lower roofs with mullion-and-transom windows on the ground floor and 3- and 4-light windows above, plus a 4-light flat-topped dormer in the end of the main range.

The garden front features projecting gabled wings at either end of a 3-window section with mullion-and-transom windows on the ground floor and slate hanging above, with 2- and 4-light windows as before. A third gabled wing in the centre has a 3-light mullion-and-transom window over a 4-light mullion-and-2-transoms window. At the south-west corner is a loggia (now closed) with former openings featuring arched keyed heads and 20 over 8 panes infill. The north-west corner gable has an open loggia below a 3-light mullion-and-transom window. Lead downpipes and hopper heads, some marked HAT (Henry Avray Tipping) and dated 1912, are present throughout.

The entrance courtyard is bounded by single-storey stone wings with concrete-tiled roofs, their gable ends flanking the approach drive. The right-hand range has five large 4-light mullioned windows and a door, while the left-hand range is blind to the courtyard; both have 3-light windows in their gable ends. The courtyard is closed by a stone wall with square gate-piers framing the drive. These gables and walls form an enclosure apparently inspired by an arrangement of barns at Markenfield in Yorkshire.

The interior is largely in the early 17th-century style, with exceptions in the Ladies' Room (early 18th century) and the Dining Room (late 18th-century neo-classical). The Hall or Oak Parlour is panelled with an elaborate plaster ceiling, apparently a replica of one in the old Duchy of Cornwall office in London, and a fireplace with paired fluted columns and triglyph frieze above. The staircase is a panelled open-well design with splat balusters and square newels with moulded knops. The Ladies' Room has a Queen Anne style fireplace and 6-panel doors. The Dining Room features an Adam style fireplace and door architraves with moulded heads, wall panels, and delicate neo-classical ceiling mouldings; the fireplace and doors were apparently introduced from Brasted Place, Kent. The first floor contains several bedrooms with barrel vaulted ceilings in the early 17th-century manner, featuring moulded strapwork in the plaster and white-painted panelling. The master bedroom (Tipping's own) is panelled with an open turned baluster screen separating sleeping from dressing areas; the coved ceiling copies one at Chastleton House, Oxfordshire. Several fireplaces have pretty tiled surrounds. Two brick Arts and Crafts fireplaces designed by Eric Francis incorporate Italian Renaissance terracotta panels, probably 19th-century reproductions. The courtyard wings have been extensively altered since 1950 as part of conversion into a school. The right-hand wing formerly contained a ballroom and then workshops, now converted to dormitories.