Details
SOUTH PETHERTON CP SILVER STREET (North side)
ST4317
6/163 Manor House, King Ina's Palace
19.4.61
GV II*
Manor House. Possibly C14, with C16 crosswing, remodelled and extended in C19. Ham stone ashlar; plain clay-tiled
roofs, mostly between or behind moulded coped gabes; stone chimney stacks. Complex plan, the west wing mostly 2 storeys
with attic formerly with hall through to roof; the crosswing to east end of 2 storeys, with sundry additions to
north-east, 2 storeys and single-storey with attic: south elevation of 4 bays. Mullioned windows of a C15 pattern but
of C19 insertion mostly, 2-light bays 1 to 3, the upper windows 4-centre-arched with cusped tracery, set under coped
gables; the lower flat-arched with quatrefoil spandril tracery and transomed, under continuous label stepped up over
each opening: bay 4 has a 2-storey angled bay window against a projecting gable of 2+3+2 lights each floor, with
tracery to match, the bay having plinth, corner buttresses with offsets and a crenellated parapet masking a hipped
tiled roof, and between the windows traceried panels each bearing 2 shields; in west return of this projection are
flat-arched chamfer-mullioned windows of 3 lights to both main levels, with a 2-light in an attic gable: between bays 2
and 3 a projecting chimney stack with offsets, with panel bearing a shield at higher level: in lower bay 3 the window
is set to the left, and to the right is a 4-centre arched doorway with C19 part-glazed door, set in moulded rectangular
recess with carved spandrils. West gable has central projecting chimney stacks, and matching ground floor windows,
single-light window to first floor and 2 single windows to attic; later extension, set lower, from north-west corner.
East elevation mostly C19 in character, but main gable towards south has chamfer-mullioned windows in chamfered
recesses with separate labels, 3-light to first floor and attic, and at crown of gable a small 2-light window;
mezzanine window of 4 lights, and ground floor window of 2-lights; the projecting section southwards has a projecting
stack; immediately north of the main east gable a circular turret, probably C19, with conical roof, an open shouldered
arch forming an open porch at its base, and single cusped lancets set at different levels along the line of a stairway.
Projecting eastwards just north of tower is a single-storey wing with attic, to match, with three 3-light mullioned
windows in south wall, and in east gable of this unit a 2-light window with label, over which is a recess with a
aculptured figure: a further link northwards, with porch, connects to an otherwise separate single storey-with-attic
wing, possibly the old kitchen, of which the roof is of wider span and thus with higher ridge, having a single- light
window and a part-blocked 4-centre arched doorway in south wall, and in east gable, which has a very steep pitch, is a
mullioned and transomed C15 traceried window under pointed-arched label having plain stops. Further, presumably later,
buildings northwards again, all forming a pleasant group. Interior not seen, but some medieval features survive, such
as a good 4-centre- arched fireplace in the hall, double-ogee moulded with carved spandrils, over which is a panel with
2 blank shields and the legend 'pro omnibus te deum laudamus'; one at least of the hall windows is original although
probably relocated, otherwise detail is much altered; both engravings and photographs of the house prior to restoration
survive in the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society Collection. (VCH, Vol III, 1974; VAG Report,
unpublished SRO, December 1977; Wood M, The English Medieval House, pp 105, l12, ll5 and plate XXB).
Listing NGR: ST4332917091
