Newton Surmaville

Details

BARWICK CP ST51NE NEWTON SURMAVILLE

2/21 Newton Surmaville (formerly listed as Newton House under Yeovil Without CP) 19.4.61 GV I

Country House. Built between 1608 and 1612 for Robert Harbin, with minor C19 modifications. Ham stone cut, squared and random coursed, with ashlar dressings; Welsh slate roofs between coped gables, with some lead flat roofs; stone chimney stacks with pierced stone cowls crowned with ball finials. Medieval hall with flanking porch and passage translated into Classical and symmetrical terms, somewhat influenced by nearby, and just earlier, Montacute House (qv); Library and rear services added 1875: principal (North) elevation of 2-storeys with gable attics; 5-bays, of which -1, -3 and -5 are gabled, and -2 and -4 project with flat roofs behind balustered parapets. Plinthed, with string courses, plain coped gables with profusion of finials including obelisks: semi- circular arched entrance porch in bay-4 with heavy door in recess, square panel over cutting into string course with arms of Harbin impaling Pert; 5-light by 3-light ovolo mould mullioned and transomed square bay windows through both storeys bay-2 and upper bay-4; elsewhere matching 5-light windows to ground floor, 4-light to first floor, and 3-lights without transomes to attic gables. East front to river of 4-bays separated by projecting gables with chimney stacks, one of which is a chimney: central projection has plain doorway with coat of arms in panel over: 3-light mullioned and transomed windows to full width each bay, bays-2 and -3; plinth, string courses, balustraded parapets between gables. West elevation plain, with simple single-storey projecting porch in centre. Internally the principal rooms little altered: entrance passage leads through to mostly C19 staircase lobby; to right the breakfast parlour (formerly the buttery), with original panelling, and to the left the one-storey hall, with slightly later panelling and a Georgian cornice to a plain ceiling; through this room, in the North East corner, the drawing room, with probably original panelling and thin-ribbed plaster ceiling and two fine Brussels tapestries; beyond this, along the East front, again with original panelling and thin-ribbed ceiling, with pendants. The staircase to the rear, wrapped around the garde-robe flue, was radically altered in the C19 when the rear passage was formed. The central first floor bedroom has an original plaster ceiling and panelling as well as an original fireplace and several tapestries; the first floor library, in the South East corner has a prominent oriel window, and was added in 1875 to the design of Joseph N Johnstone. On the South side a paved courtyard with C19 stables and the Wring-house, or Cider room. (Grdon Nares "Newton Surmaville, Somerset"; Country Life, issues of September 5th, 12th and 19th 1952; SANHS Proceedings Volume 56, 1-37 and 2-19/21, also Volume 109 pp 33-34).

Listing NGR: ST5652915395

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

263579

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Nares, G, Newton Surmaville Somerset, ()
Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society in Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, Vol. 56, (), 37
Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society in Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, Vol. 56, (), 19 21
Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society in Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, Vol. 56, (), 33-34
Country Life in 12 September, (1952)
Country Life in 19 September, (1952)
Country Life in 5 September, (1952)

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

End of official list entry

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