Summary
Nash Court (now three dwellings currently known as Nash Court, Manor House and Nash Lodge) is a substantial house originating in the late C16/C17, with alterations and additions in the C18, C19 and early C20.
Reasons for Designation
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: Nash Court, Manor House and Nash Lodge, formerly a single house known as Nash Court, are designated at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: a well-preserved, evolved country house whose main phases from the C18 and C19 are of good quality in architectural style, and in construction;
* Evidence of evolution: the house has been altered and added to in the C18, C19 and C20, with work of good quality reflecting changing taste in this period;
* Interior: a large number of features from all periods of the house's development survive, which are of good quality;
* Alteration: despite being divided into three units, the house has been little altered in the C20 and C21; the division into three wings appears to have preserved much of the layout;
* Historic interest: the house was for over two hundred years the home of the Hussey family, including the artist Giles Hussey, the C18 portraitist who was born here and spent much of his later life living at the house.
History
During the C16, Nash Court (now divided into three properties known as Nash Court. Manor House and Nash Lodge) is believed to have been in the ownership of Glastonbury Abbey, but following the Dissolution it was given by Henry VIII to Catherine Parr, along with other Dorset properties. The earliest identifiable part of the house, the east wing now known as Nash Court, may date from the late-C16 or C17. Between 1651 and 1884 Nash Court was owned by the Hussey family, and was the birthplace of the artist Giles Hussey in 1710.
Further alterations, perhaps including the rebuilding or refenestration of the hall range (now known as Manor House), were carried out in the C18, and in 1836, the cross-wing to the east, containing the earliest part of the house, was altered and extended. In 1884, the house was purchased by the Rev R B Kennard for £2,600, and he set about altering the house to suit him. The hall range was altered in 1885; the porch in this range carries a coat of arms and date of that year. At the same time, the two additions to the east elevation of the east wing were made to either side of the porch, each resulting in a single narrow room on each floor. The bell tower which rises above the porch on this elevation is likely also to date from this phase, though one source attributes it to the 1836 remodelling of the house. Alterations were made to the interior in the 1880s, and again between 1911 and 1918.
Nash Court was divided into three separate dwellings, Nash Court, Nash Lodge and Manor House, in 1979.
Details
MATERIALS: the building is constructed of coursed stone with ashlar dressings, with a slate roof. There are a number of tall ridge and gable chimneystacks of red brick.
PLAN: the plan shows the southern, hall range running north-east to south-west, with a large cross-wing to the eastern end. Running to the rear of the hall range is the former service range. Associated with the house are a number of boundary walls, a walled garden and outbuildings; these features are not of special interest.
EXTERIOR: the building has two-storeys with attics and a slate roof. Photographs from the 1951 RCHME Inspector's notes show that the south elevation, at that time, consisted of a three-bay range with a further projecting bay to the east end. The main range has a single-storey, projecting porch to the right of centre, with a four-centred arched doorway with hood mould and carved decoration to the spandrels, dating from 1885. This doorway is flanked by mullioned and transomed windows with arched top-lights; those to the first floor are similar, and all have hood moulds. The attic has three gabled dormers housing timber casements. The projecting bay to the right has a large, single-storey bay window to the ground floor, with a five-light mullioned and transomed window, and three-light mullioned windows to the first and attic floors.
The eastern wing, which contains some earlier fabric, has gabled projecting wings and a central porch to the north-east elevation. The elevation is largely symmetrical; both projecting bays have two single-light windows to the ground floor and a single two-light window to each of the first and attic floors. Above the entrance is a central, narrow, projecting bay which rises from the first floor and has windows to the first and attic floors. It is surmounted by a bell tower with a sweeping pyramidal roof. The windows consist largely of flat-headed mullions with sashes, set below stone drip moulds.
INTERIOR: the various sources each give some information about the interior. A southern room in the east wing contains a fireplace dating from circa 1600, which is understood to have been moved here in circa 1911-18; it may have been imported, but may also have been brought from elsewhere in the house. The morning room at the south end of the east wing has a panelled ceiling probably dating to circa 1885, and an elaborate chimneypiece with herms and strapwork, which dates to the later C19 or early C20. A room described in the 1951 notes as a drawing room at the west end (that is, in the former hall range) has late-C18 or early-C19 pine panelling, with moulded skirtings, dado rail and ceiling cornice. To the first floor, various bedrooms have late-C17 oak panelling to dado height, reputedly remodelled from the former screens dividing the C16/C17 hall from the cross-passage. Another bedroom has re-sited C18 pine panelling. An earlier stair was removed when the house was remodelled in the 1880s, during which time a dining room was created from the former stair hall and adjacent butler's pantry; a new stair reportedly made from the timbers of a merchant ship, the Victory, was inserted and was present in 1951.
