Details
A landscape park associated with a country house.
HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT
The Kyrle family has been seated at Homme since at least the C17. The park remains in private hands.
DESCRIPTION
LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING
Homme House lies 1km south of the village of Much Marcle on the main A449 road from Ledbury, 8km to the north-east, to Ross-on-Wye c 10km to the south-west. Here the road follows a stream which runs down the narrow valley between Marcle and Gwynne's hills, Homme House lying towards the bottom of the north end of the latter. The A449 forms the principal western boundary of the park; otherwise the boundary follows field edges. The area here registered is c 65ha.
ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES
Homme House is approached from the north-west, via a short curving drive off the A449. At the entrance to the drive is a T-plan sandstone rubble lodge (listed grade II) of two storeys, probably of early C19 date. Decorative details include an octagonal brick stack, a gabled latticed porch, Y-traceried windows, and moulded bargeboards.
Opposite the lodge the drive continues west for c 300m, through a shrubbery, to the hamlet of Bodenham Bank on the minor road which runs around the eastern side of Marcle Hill.
The House is also served by a drive through the park from Much Marcle, 1km to the north. Lower Lodge, in Much Marcle village, was apparently similar to the main road lodge but has been modernised out of all recognition. It has datestones of 1820 and 1965.
PRINCIPAL BUILDING
Homme House (listed grade II*) is of two distinct parts which meet at right angles. The older, of sandstone, is of c 1500 and has a low tower with canted oriel window and battlements. This is attached to the north-east corner of the main late C18 block, which is a three-storey, six-by-three-bay building of brick with stone dressings and a slate roof. The main front is to the north-east, where there is a porch with two pairs of Tuscan columns.
Attached to the north side of the House as part of a service court is a brick C18 coach house (listed grade II), in the later C20 used as a dwelling.
GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS
Not inspected 1997.
PARK
The park (not inspected internally) extends south-west and south-east of Homme House, onto the lower slopes of Gwynne's Hill, but mainly north as a 900m long triangular block of land with Much Marcle church immediately beyond the apex.
West of the House there is a good deal of planting around the stream and east of the road. Much of the park in general, certainly its western and northern parts, is well planted with mature parkland trees in permanent grass.
There are belt plantings along the south boundary of the park.
Some 100m north of the House is a pair of large, kidney-shaped fishponds, in all c 250m long; in the middle of the south pool, which is the larger, is an island.
The park first appears on printed maps of the county on Greenwood's of 1834, and was therefore probably laid out at about the time the House was rebuilt; the date of 1820 on one of the lodges (see above) may be significant.
KITCHEN GARDEN
The walled kitchen garden (not inspected) lies immediately west of the House and service court, and occupies a roughly square area.
The west corner of the garden wall loops around a late C17 (Pevsner suggests c 1670), two-storey summerhouse (listed grade I). Of sandstone rubble with sandstone dressings, the building is octagonal and has C18 triangular-headed wrought-iron casements. Attached to the south is an octagonal stair turret with oval windows. The roofs are covered with stone slates.
REFERENCES
N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Herefordshire (1963), pp 261-2
P Reid, Burke's and Savills Guide to Country Houses: Volume II, Herefordshire Y (1980), pp 38-9
Maps
OS 6" to 1 mile: Herefordshire sheet 41 SW, 1st edition published 1887
Herefordshire sheet 47 NW, 1st edition published 1887
OS 25" to 1 mile: Herefordshire sheet 47.2, 2nd edition published 1904
Archival items
Sale particulars, 1921 (BF74); Parish plan, ?1826 (F35/2C/IV/E/308), (Herefordshire Record Office)
Description written: 1998
Register Inspector: PAS
Edited: August 1999
