Description

SOUTH ELKINGTON ELKINGTON ROAD
TF 38 NW
8/4 Thorpe Hall
6.6.52
G.V. II*

Small country house. Originally built in 1584 for Sir John
Bolle, with C17 modifications, substantial C18 enlargements and
early C19 and C20 alterations. Red brick, ashlar dressings, old
plain tiled roofs with brick coped gables and lead dressed hips.
3 large ridge stacks with diamond set shafts. The early C18
front has a hipped roof with modillioned cornice, is 2 storeys
plus attics, and of 7 bays, the centre bay slightly advanced.
The central half glazed door is flanked by 3 glazing bar sashes.
To first floor are 7 glazing bar sashes. In the roof are 3
dormer windows with sliding sashes, moulded gabled and rendered
cheeks. To the right is an early C19 block. At the rear is a
projecting steeply gabled block with 3 diapers in dark headers to
the gable, probably forming part of the original house. Above a
small entrance porch to the right is set an ashlar datestone
inscribed "1584" and to left is a further gabled block which
although altered retains a pattern of late C17 fenestration.
Interior. The entrance hall has C17 oak panelling and an ornate
Jacobean overmantle probably imported and reset in C19. The dog
leg staircase is late C17 with moulded handrail and bulbous
balusters. The dining room has reset full height C17 panelling
with some panels having semi-circular heads with decorative
pilasters and leaves in the spandrels. The first floor has early
C19 decorated cornices and elliptical arches, and 2 rooms with
early C18 fielded panelling and bolection moulded fireplace
surrounds. The original kitchen has a large ashlar 3 centred
arch with keystone, and imposts, flanked by single brick arches
with keystones. The roof over the main range is staggered butt
purlin construction, reusing timbers from an earlier roof. The
house is set in grounds laid out by Gertrude Jekyll in 1906, and
the terraces use stonework from Sir Christopher Wren's church of
St. Mildred in the Poultry. Sir John Bolle fought at Cadiz in
1596 and there took captive a Spanish Lady which event became the
subject of a ballad "The Spanish Lady's love for an Englishman"
and was celebrated in a poem by Shenston "Love and Honour". His
son, Sir Charles Bolle, was a distinguished Royalist. John Lewis
Fytche, Tennyson's uncle, was resident here in C19. Source:
Ross Papers, Vol. VI.

Listing NGR: TF3177087193

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17548612

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

• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)