Woodhouse Including Attached Service Range to North

Details

WEST FELTON C.P. SJ 32 NE 8/52 Woodhouse including attached service range to north (formerly listed 19.1.52 as Wood House including kitchen wing, offices and coachbuildings) GV II* Country house. 1773-4 by Robert Mylne for William Mostyn-Owen incorporating parts of the house built for Robert Owen, Sheriff of Shropshire, in early C17; later additions and alterations. Red brick with sandstone ashlar dressings and plinth encapsulating timber frame; double-span low-pitched hipped slate roof.with painted stacks below ridge. 2 storeys with continuous moulded entablature and parapet; Ionic pilasters to corners and centre of main fronts. Entrance front: 2 pairs of glazing bar sashes (15-Paned to ground floor) with gauged heads flanking centre recess with a distyle Ionic portico in antis, the centre of which, supported on 2 giant Ionic columns, projects so as to produce the effect of a porch. Portico itself is sandstone but recess is brick, rendered and scored in imitation of large ashlar blocks. Broken-pedimented doorcase with carving of double-headed eagle (Mostyn family crest) to top,formerly flanked by roundels, now infilled and partly cut by glazing bar sashes inserted c.1927. Contemporary sash windows directly above to first floor. Lead down-pipes to corners and to sides of centre recess. South front: 3:3:3 bays,centre section forming full-height ashlar-faced bow with applied giant Ionic columns. Glazing bar sashes (15-paned to ground floor) with gauged heads. West front: 2:3:1 bays, centre section recessed with lead down-pipes in angles; entablature to right bay only. Glazing bar sashes to first floor and tall round-headed windows to ground floor. North front: rendered partly over timber frame; 4 glazing bar sashes to first floor with sash windows of reduced proportions directly above to second floor plus one recently inserted to right at time of resurvey (June 1986). Brick lean-to below has blind wide segmental-headed arches to left and right with sash windows. Service range: attached to north. Probably mainly c.1773-4, reusing earlier sash windows to rear, with eaves raised c.1830-40. Incorporates brewhouse and bakehouse to ground floor with former granary above, later converted to domestic accommodation as which left part remains. 3 storeys; 2:1:2 bays, centre section forming slightly projecting break with dentilled cornice carried up around pediment. Segmental-headed glazing bar-sashes with projecting keystones, lower right infilled and half-glazed door, also with segmental head, inserted. Entrance knocked through to centre bay. Segmental-headed 6-panel door (top panels now glazed) to far left. Date "1909" on rainwater heads in angle between projecting break and ranges to left and right. Ridge stacks to left and right of pediment with outer ridge stacks to left and right and integral end stack to left. Central octagonal louvred lantern housing bell, surmoun- ted by brass weathervane. Former roof pitch visible to right gable end. Rear has 5 segmental-headed openings on each floor, some blind and others having late C17 or early C18 sash windows with thick glazing bars. Segmental-headed air vents for former granary above first-floor windows. Attached pump and stone basin between fourth and fifth bays from left. Interior. Entrance hall has central stone staircase, starting in one flight and branching at right-angles to left and right on half-landing. Cast-iron balustrade with oval-shaped rosettes to open string and wreathed handrail. Top-lit by octagonal lantern with plaster decoration to each face. Cast-iron balustrade to first floor similar to that of staircase with wide elliptical arch above to centre and narrower flanking arches. Round-headed arches at top of each flight of staircase. Colonnade in antis in front of staircase with 2 sandstone Ionic columns supporting frieze, which is continuation of that below balustrade to first floor. Stone fireplace to right with carvings of double-headed eagles above miniature Ionic columns. Room to left of entrance hall has Adam-style marble fireplace depicting scenes from classical mythology and plaster frieze and cornice. Room behind (in bow) has marble fireplace with a carving of a putto astride an eagle. Scalloped round-headed niches above and to left and right, now infilled with C19 bookcases. Elaborate plaster frieze and cornice. Double doors in reeded pilastered surround lead to rectangular-shaped room with Adam- syle marble fireplace; another elaborate plaster frieze and cornice. Dining Room (behind entrance hall) has plaster frieze with festooned garlands and egg and dart moulding to cornice. Plain marble fireplace with crest of double-headed eagle. Rooms to right of entrance hall represent earlier part of house. Exposed timber frame (mostly close studding of c.1600) to both floors and attic. Overhanging gallery with window to present kitchen represents back wall of original house. Reused rectangular oak panelling some with fluted frieze, including to back staircase. Panelled doors and moulded plaster cornices to first floor rooms in C18 part. A set of builder's accounts survives for the rebuilding of 1773/4. Charles Darwin was a frequent visitor to the house between 1828 and 1833. Addition of c,1927 in C18 style form- erly attached to north was demolished c.1984. B.o.E. p.322; Colvin (1978) pp. 573, 576; Christopher Gotch, 'Mylne and Adam', Architectural Review (Feb 1956) pp. 121-3; notes provided by owner (June 1986).

Listing NGR: SJ3641728835

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

255765

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Colvin, H M, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840, (1978), 573 576
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Shropshire, (1958), 322
Architectural Review in February, (1956), 121-3

End of official list entry

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