Manor House, King Ina's Palace

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

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

264248

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Wood, E, The English Medieval House, (1965)
Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Somerset, (1974)
Vernacular Architecture Group Report in December, (1977)

End of official list entry

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