Ven House

Details

ST61NE MILBORNE PORT CP LONDON ROAD (South side)

5/147 Ven House

24.3.61

GV I

Country House. Begun 1698, completed c1730 by Richard Grange for James Medlycott; altered and extended by Cubitt and Decimus Burton in 1836. Red brick, Flemish bond, with Ham stone dressings; hipped Welsh slate roof behind balustraded parapets; brick chimney stacks with moulded stone caps. Rectangular plan of 7 bays by 5 bays, with curved sweep walls to pavilions (qv). 3 storeys with basement; 7 bay North elevation. Rusticated plinth; stone pilasters with Corinthian capitals to corners and between bays 2/3 and 5/6 carrying cornice; panelled pilasters to each bay of second floor carrying string course and balustrade, with terra-cotta urns above principal pilasters. 12-pane sash windows to basement, behind railing-type grilles; 8-pane sashes to ground floor and 18-pane sashes to first-the latter with thick glazing bars set in keystoned architraved surrounds, of which those to the 3 central bays are heeled and shouldered; 12-pane sash windows to second floor set in simpler surrounds with deeper keystones; to central ground floor bay a projecting flat roofed porch with 3 steps up to a pair of 5-panelled doors set in stone surround with attached Corinthian columns carrying an entablature and swan neck pediment with central cartouche bearing the Medlycott arms with eagle crest. Sweep walls to full height of plinth plus balustrades; each of 5 bays on quarter circle curve with one end and one return bay. The South elevation similar, except that the central french doors are flush with the wall and have fluted quasi-Doric pilasters and a segmental pediment on an entablature as a surround; the side elevations are simpler, with plain plinth, brick band course above first floor level, and brick apron panels to windows; the West elevation has a central glazed door in keystoned architrave with pediement hood on console brackets; the East elevation partly concealed by 1836 outbuildings. The interior was a little modified in 1836, when a large two-arm staircase behind the hall was replaced by a cantilever stair with cast iron balustrade in the middle of the East side: the hall, centre North side, of two storeys, with stone fireplaces to both sides, flanked and surmounted by overmantales with Ionic pilasters and pediments, and at back a gallery on stained timber Ionic columns, curving back in centre; stone and marble floor, and applied plasterwork ceiling with complex centre panel featuring a painting of 'Time and Beauty'. The salon or great drawing room South of the hall is higher than other ground floor rooms and has a moulded plaster ceiling with acanthus coving, mostly C19 joinery, and some scagliola work. The South West corner room has an applied plaster ceiling, plainer cornice, C19 joinery and a marble fireplace; the centre West room has a plain ceiling, field panelled walls with fluted Tuscan pilasters, metopes to some parts of frieze, and a marble bolection mould fireplace with over mirror, one of several C18 mirrors in the house. The North West corner room has shallow fielded panelling to the walls, with semi-circular headed recesses to either side of a marble fireplace of c1740; the ceiling has applied plasterwork decoration above a heavy moulded wood coving: the North East room has plain walls, console bracketted coving to ceiling with a C18 centrepiece, C19 joinery; the South East corner room has a moulded ceiling with console bracket coving, C19 joinery and a wood and gesso fireplace, and Chinese style handpainted wallpaper. The bedrooms to first floor plainer: the South East bedroom has moulded covering, and good C18 fireplaces with pine egg and dart shouldered surrounds and carved overmantels with marble lining and early C19 grates, and there are similar fireplaces to the North East and central South rooms: those to the three rooms on the West side have been removed and said to be in store. (Country Life, June 24th, 1911; also description of garden and its features, Country Life, October 29th, 1898).

Listing NGR: ST6804518430

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

261884

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Country Life in 24 June, (1911)
Country Life in 29 October, (1898)

Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 37 Somerset,

End of official list entry

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