Middle Court and Court Hall

Details

SX 98 SE
6/247

KENTON
MAMHEAD ROAD (west side), Kenton
Middle Court and Court Hall

GV
II
House, divided into two. Early C18, extended at the left end some time between 1747 and 1796, early C19 refurbishment, early C20 alterations. Rendered, said to be a mixture of cob and stone rubble; two span slate roof, gabled at the right end, hipped at the left of the front block; right end stack, axial stack, front left lateral stack.

Plan and Development: complex evolution. Some of the fabric may predate the early C18 and the division of the house (on the line of the late C18 extension) has necessarily altered the function of some of the rooms. Double depth plan, three rooms wide until the addition of the left end block in the early C19 giving four rooms width. Principal entrance in the third bay from the right into an entrance hall (entrance moved from second bay from the right in the C20). Second entrance to left hand house into early C19 left end addition.

Exterior: two storeys. Asymmetrical 3:4 window front with regular fenestration of probably late C18 twelve-pane sash windows. Good doorcase to Court Hall with Doric columns, a cornice and a swan-neck pediment in the third bay from the right, early C20 photographs show that the pediment is a C20 addition. The right return (shown blind in late C19 photographs) has a probably Edwardian first floor canted bay window with timber sashes with glazing bars and two round C20 windows on the ground floor. A tall stone rubble garden wall with square on plan gate piers adjoins the right return and continues round the garden to the south-west.

Interior: the right hand house has a plaster cornice and a segmental arched recess with a moulded architrave and plaster rosettes to ground floor right. The rear right room has a reeded plaster moulding on the ceiling in panels between two boxed in crossbeams, the beams may pre-date the C18, stained glass windows probably early C20 state that Polwhele lived in the house 1782-1793. The left hand house retains a plaster corniice in the right hand room. The stair is probably Edwardian. A print of 1747 in the possession of the owner shows a four-bay house (ie. the present right hand dwelling). Swete's watercolour of 1796 shows the present seven bays but not the block at the left end.

The site has been occupied since at least 1512; the historian Polwhele may have lived in the house between 1782 and 1793 the house is illustrated in his history of Devon. In the early C20 it was a private mental asylum for women.

A handsome building with a long building history in the centre of Kenton. Group value with other houses on the Mamhead Road.

Listing NGR: SX9579783252

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

85913

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Swete, J, Swetes Picturesque Sketches of Devon, (1792-1801)

End of official list entry

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