Description

SOMERTON

508/4/128 THE DOWER HOUSE AND ATTACHED GATEWAY (
17-APR-59 BLOCKED), NORTH EAST OF SOMERTON COURT

(Formerly listed as:
THE LODGE AND ATTACHED GATEWAY ABOUT 5
0 METRES NORTH WEST OF SOMERTON COURT)
(Formerly listed as:
SOMERTON COURT)

GV II
Former lodge, now a dwelling. Constructed in the early C19 with late-C20 alterations.

MATERIALS: It is built of local lias stone that is roughly cut and squared, with Ham stone dressings and a hipped asbestos cement slate roof with a stone chimneystack.

PLAN: The building is trapezoidal in plan and is of two storeys.

EXTERIOR: The north, roadside, elevation has a recess with curved return to the left-hand bay with a studded boarded door in a heavy frame set within a plain opening with voussoired flat arch. To the right of the entrance is a two-light pointed arched casement window with small panes and Y-tracery and a matching window to the upper floor. On the east elevation are C20 ovolo-moulded mullioned windows to the ground floor of bay one and the upper floor of both bays, but the ground floor of bay two has an earlier window of the same pattern set in a blocked four-centred archway with a shaped label and plain jambs, which may possibly have been re-used from Somerton Court (qv).

INTERIOR: not inspected.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Attached to the north-east corner of the building is a length of wall with an elliptical-arched gateway that was blocked in the late C20. The gateway was infilled with lias stone rubble in 1989, but its position remains clear.

SOURCES:
Parishes: Somerton, A History of the County of Somerset: Volume 3 (1974), 129-153
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66494
Accessed on 24 November 2010.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The former lodge to Somerton Court, now known as The Dower House, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: the building is an accomplished and well-proportioned Gothic composition of the early C19
* Intactness: the building is largely unaltered externally
* Group value: the lodge forms an ensemble with the Grade II listed Somerton Court, the main house it served.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26308476

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.

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