Details
DOWLISH WAKE CP
ST31SE
DOWLISH WAKE VILLAGE
Dowlish Manor Farmhouse
(formerly listed as Manor House .
with three outbuildings)
4.2.58
GV 11*
Manor House, At least C11 origins, present fabric of all periods from C15. Ham Stone cut and squared, with ashlar
dressings; thatched roof between coped gables; stone chimney stacks. Four-unit Plan, 'L' shaped with additions; 2
storeys. North elevation of 5 bays, of which bay 1 is a 3-bay northwards projecting wing, with blind end gable: the
west flank of the return has C20 casement window bays 1 and 3, but upper bay 2 has a single-light hollow-chamfer mould
window in chamfered recess under label: bay 2 of the main block has a 3-light leaded casement to the first floor; lower
bay 3 and both levels bay 4 and 5 have 12-pane sash windows, whilst upper bay 3 has a later single casement matched by
another to right of the C20 door to bay 2, which it set under a thatched hood; there is a slijht projection of walling
left of the door, and a nearly full-height buttress between bays 3/4 having moulded offsets: lean-to against front west
gable, - bays 4 and 5 have double roof plan. East elevation has C20 windows and is of little interest. South elevation
apparently the earliest, in part;. the 2-bay projection of the south-west corner, bays I and 2, has corner and central
buttresses originally all full-height, the centre now shortened; hollow-chamfer mulloned windows in chamfered
recesses, the lower 5-light with labels; upper bay 1 is a 3-light, probably deepened, and is matched by an extra window
over the central buttress, and upper bay 2 has a 2-light; in the return east gable at ground floor another 3-light with
label: the recessed portion also 2 bays, with a single light to upper bay 1, set to a slight angle, with traces of a
stairlight under, and bay 2 has 4-light mullioned windows- to both levels, all with labels: a C20 doorway in the angled
part of bay 1. In the west gable of, the south-west section are 2 further blocked stairlights, and water tabling for the
roof of a former extension, now represented by a thatch-topped wall. The interior much altered and the ground floor
opened out, but nevertheless much of interest: a former through passage marked by a length of in-and-out boarded
partition: the large north-west room has a C20 staircase alongside a cambered arched fireplace with hollow and ogee
moulding, small-chamfered crossbeams with scroll-stops, whereas the room eastwards has beams with keeled stops and a
blocked fireplace: the south-west room has another cambered-arched fireplace.backing onto that of hall; with large
relieving arch over, and traces of a stair to an external upper room: the uper south-west room has a similar fireplace;
to the north-west room there is a later C18 fireplace, and door, doarcases and other details to match: the upper
south-east room has a panelled ceiling with moulded beams of later C16, the whole possibly raised floor, and a
fireplace with wide and massive moulded lintel, set very low indicating a change of floor level, and on its right a
verv heavy C15 2-centre-arched doorframe, almost certainly reset from elsewhere. The south-west wing roofspace was not
seen, but there are hints of at least one jointed cruck roof truss; the north-west corner, despite the Cl8 work below,
has a fine arch-braced, cranked collar trussed roof with trenched purlins; and 3 tiers of arched windbraces, parts
smoke blackened - some pendants survive to the arch-braces, and part of a dentilled cornice plate survives: this roof
said to continue across whole of main block: the roof to the north projecting wing said to have 3 adapted jointed cruck
trusses. This is a pre-Conquest manor, known as Dowlish Farm by 1688: held by the Wake family from the C12, it passed
through marriage to the Speke family at the end of the C15; they sold it in l920. (VCH Somerset Vol IV, l978, ppl52-3;
VAG Report, unpublished SRO, (1984).
Listing NGR: ST3760812953
