Description

ALWINGTON
SS32SE
5/42 Portledge Hotel
22.1.52 (formerly listed as
Portledge)
GV. II * `
Country house, now hotel. Medieval; C16 and C17 extensions and
alterations; front range remodelled and extended c. 1830. Ashlar
slatestone to front; gabled slate roofs with mid C19 bell cupola
to rear; stone lateral and internal stacks. Plan form and
development: medieval great hall, screens passage and service
end, encased by thick walls, lies to right side of rear; by early
C17 house had enclosed central courtyard with the hall standing
on its right side; in about 1830 this courtyard was turned into
an octagonal inner hall, the house refronted in Domestic Tudor
and Gothick-style, and the projecting right-hand front wing
built; there is a small enclosed yard to the rear of the house.
Front of c. 1830 is of 2 storeys and of L-plan with projecting
right wing: triple-gabled 3-window range to left has tympanum
arches above label moulds over 4-light stone-mullioned windows
with glazing bars to casements; reset mid C16 four-light stone
mullioned and round-arched window to right; front right wing has
side walls each of 2-window range and similar windows; right side
wall of the front range has 2-light Gothick-style windows.
Triple-gabled left side wall, of c. 1830, has hollow-chamfered
round-arched windows; porch has a pointed-arched entry with
rusticated arch and Tuscan pilasters to inner porch, which has
C17 studded and decoratively-carved door set in a moulded wood
architrave and a C17 studded door with fielded panels to right.
Older work lies to the rear of the house, principally to the rear
of the right side wall; a C17 two-storey crenellated porch, with
a hood mould over an early C17 moulded round-arched doorway,
adjoins a late C17 two-storey gable end to rear, with two late
C17 wood-mullioned and transomed cross windows with
leaded-lights. To rear of the house is an early C17 range,
remodelled in the early C19, and another parallel range of C17
origins to right: these two ranges are separated by a walled
yard, which has part of a C12 chamfered round arch to a rear
doorway and a gallery of late C16 Mannerist-style carved posts
supporting scroll-bracketed wall plate with carved pendentives.
Interior: C12 hall, to rear right, is encircled by massively
thick walls and has a screens passage to rear with a C15
chamfered and round-arched service doorway; the hall was gutted
by fire in about 1890. Yard to rear is flanked by range to left
which has moulded wood architraves with urn stops, one with plank
and studded door; ground-floor room to rear (former kitchen) has
mid C18 panelled doors and bolection-moulded architrave to
fireplace, large bread oven and 2 heavy beams; block to rear
right has early C17 stop-chamfered beams and bases of A-frame
trusses. First-floor room to rear of medieval hall has mid C18
panelling with bolection-moulded overmantle. In the early C19
the central courtyard was infilled by an octagonally-shaped hall
with imitation ashlar stucco walls and lit by a large glazed
lantern; panelled doors, with Gothick architraves to first floor
and Gothick balustrade to gallery; beamed ceiling is supported by
brattished corbels. Rest of description details front range:
early C19 plasterwork to ground-floor dining room on right; oval
medallions are C20; early C19 Gothick colonettes with foliate
capitals to windows on right. Very find early C17 dog-leg
staircase with landing: turned balusters set on closed string;
carved foliate decoration to turned newels; turned and carved
pendentives; moulded banisters. Landing above staircase has
early C17 moulded wood architraves with urn stops, C17 studded
door, and fine ribbed plasterwork ceiling with large central
pendentive, thistles of James I and heraldic eschutcheon.
First-floor room to right has fine early C17 overmantle with
arcaded and trabeated Doric friezes; early C17 panelling, each
panel having a pedimented aedicule surmounted by urns and flanked
by scrolls. Gallery to left of stairs has very fine
barrel-vaulted plaster ceiling of c. 1700; cherubs in tympanae at
each end hold vases of flowers and swags; two fine ovals to
ceiling, which are comprised of fruit and vegetables to left, and
flowers with masks of Green Men to right; early C17 fireplace
with heraldic cartouche to overmantle. Room to left has another
very fine early C17 overmantle with helmed coat of arms flanked
by birds holding trails of flowers and female figures, probably
Ceres. History: the Pine-Coffin family have lived at Portledge
since the C12. There are similarities between the plasterwork
here and the very fine plasterwork ceiling of c. 1684 at the
Royal Hotel, Bideford.

Listing NGR: SS3942224720

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Portledge Manor at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7232101

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)