Details
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656-1/14/1489
SION HILL (east side)
Sion Cottage and attached stable, dovecote and walls
(Formerly Listed as: SION HILL Sion Cottage)
05/08/75
GV
II
Detached house, stable, dovecote and walls. c1760, altered early and late C19, with C20 additions.
MATERIALS: limestone ashlar, hipped slate roof to main block with other pantile and lead roofs, moulded stacks to returns and rear.
STYLE: Gothic style.
EXTERIOR: two storeys and basement to front, three storeys and basement to rear single storey wings to sides and wider C19 rear range. Symmetrical five-window front range. House originally had enclosed porch flanked by full height deep canted bays and leaded windows (recorded in a contemporary print). Ground floor has stone mullions between paired two-light six-pane casement windows with flat arches and Gothic glazing to overlights. Porch, now integral after c1800 changes, has deep casement moulding to flattened pointed arch flanked by pilasters with panels similar to those of buttresses and similar but smaller obelisk finials above cornice, below it, in spandrels, are sunk quatrefoils. First floor with three-pane trefoil-headed windows, paired to fronts of bays, and a row of three to centre above porch. Castellated parapet, terminal buttresses to sides with pointed, ball-capped finials over sunk quatrefoil panels. Wider three storey rear range projecting with single window to each side beyond returns of main block, has three-light three-pane trefoil headed windows to second floor, paired three-pane lancet windows to first floor, ground floor covered by castellated single storey wings. To left has small Venetian window with C20 glazing.
INTERIOR: altered in period style, but retaining significant original features. Stone staircase against rear wall has decorative iron balusters and wreathed rail and curtail step. A good Gothic cornice remains in hall. Basement and cellars little altered. Three units under original house are entered from rear through three arches, those to sides segmental and lead to kitchens, that to centre, under hall, semicircular and leads to narrow storage room with stone compartments and shelves. Kitchen and service room extending under bays, stone flagged with low ceilings, kitchen to right has former open fire. To rear, stone vaulted coal compartment with blocked shutes. To rear right of C19 rear range another coal store with rough stone floor and quadrant vaulted roof with two holes, one circular and one square.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: High ashlar wall approximately 5m long to rear left attached to two-storey stable, probably C19, with access from Sion Hill. Ashlar and brick with coped gables to front and rear. Garden enclosed by ashlar and rubble wall approximately 2m high. Attached to rear right corner is a two storey square, ashlar-faced building with battlements and blocked windows to north and west of first floor and entrance to south side, probably a belvedere taking advantage of the fine prospect. Wall continues southward at right-angle for approximately 50m, fronts site to south for approximately 50m, encompasses buildings to corner and returns along west side for approximately 20m to meet stable.
HISTORY: A Gothick villa in the Kentian tradition, showing the signs of successive phases of alteration. This is a picturesque suburban villa of particularly early date for Bath.
Listing NGR: ST7398366020
