Wigborough Manor House

Details

SOUTH PETHERTON CP ST41NW WIGBOROUGH 2/190 Wigborough Manor House

19.4.61

GV I

Manor house. Part dated 1585, probably never completed; subsquently modified. Ham stone ashlar; Welsh slate roofs between coped gables; stone chimney stacks. Two and 3-storeys with attics; east entrance elevation of 5 bays, of which bay 1 is a wide gabled projection, and bays 2 and 4 narrower gables of lesser projection: possibly intended to be an eventual symmetrical plan of 'E' type, of which bay 4 would have been the centre. Cill-height plinth, gables have obelisk finials topped with small balls: ovolo-mould mullioned windows in wave-mould recesses of 4-lights to ground floor, those to bays 1, 2 and 3 being taller with transomes; 4-light to first floor except bay 4 which is 3-light here and the 2 levels above; all attic windows 3-light; all windows having individual labels: to lower bay 4 a cambered-arched doorway with panelled spandrils and a hoodmould over, above which is a square carved panel: projecting from the north-east corner is a low 2-storey wing with coped gable and ball finial, with 4-light mullioned first floor window with label, 3-light below, and a square-headed doorway with moulded jambs. West elevation also of 5 bays, of which bay 5 is gabled; bay 1 has an upper window with hollow-chamfer mullions in a chamfered recess, otherwise windows are ovolo-mould mullions wave-mould recesses; bay 1 has 4-lights to ground floor and 3-light to second; bay 2 has 7-light windows to first and second floors; bays 3 and 4 have 4-light windows to ground and second floors, the lower windows taller, with transomes; bay 5 has 4-light to each floor and a 3-light in the ettic gable, which has an obelisk finial; to lower bay 2 a cambered-arched doorway with boarded door, set in an open stone porch, probably later C18, having 4-centred outer arch, spandril panels and flat roof: chimney between bays 3 and 4. Leanto against north gable with flat coping carried down in steps, in the west wall of which is a 3-light mullioned and transomed window: high in main north gable 2 single-light second floor windows, without labels, and a 3-light attic window with label. South elevation of 2 bays, the first the gable end of the main wing, with porch matching that of west elevation to ground floor and 3-light chamfer-mullioned windows to the 3 levels above; projecting chimney stack between bays; bay 2 has ovolo-mould mulliond windows with labels, the lower with transome. Internally, a screen passage links the east and west entrances, with kitchen to north and hall to south, with closed gallery over passage and solar to east: hall has a stone cambered-arched fireplace in west wall and a cambered-arched doorway in south wall; in east wall a 4-centre-arched doorway leads into a former solar which has stripwork ceiling, ornamental frieze, a cambered-arched fireplace and panelling, partly adapted, with a corbel dated 1585: south-east drawing room has fine strapwork plaster ceiling with very deep frieze, plaster overmentel to cambered-arched stone fireplace bearing the arms of Hele of Flete. Stair to south end works around a solid core, as at nearby Montacute House (q.v.). On first floor a simpler strapwork ceiling to the south-east bedroom, which has a cambered-arched doorway and a C19 fireplace; the dressing room over the solar has simpler less-sophisticated strapwork ceiling: off the staircase at first floor level a moulded timber- framed doorway: central bedroom on west side has C16 panelling matching that in solar; minstrels gallery has early timber window into hall. Originating as a Saxon estate, the manor was shared by members of the Brome Family from 1581 to 1615, when it passed to the Hele family who held it for most of the C17: superficially an overa11 bui1ding date of 1585 is impobable, and a date between 1615 and 1650 seems more likely. (VCH, Vol III, 1974; SSAVBRG Report, unpublished SRO, 1985).

Listing NGR: ST4479515147

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

264275

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Somerset, (1974)
Somerset and South Avon Vernacular Building Research Group Report in Somerset and South Avon Vernacular Building Research Group Report, (1985)

End of official list entry

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