Description

SX 64 NW HOLBETON MOTHECOMBE
10/82
29/3/60 Mothecombe House

GV I

Country house on or near the site of an earlier manor house. Circa 1710 built for
John Pollexfen. Restored and dining room wing added in 1922-25 by Sir Edwin
Lutyens. Coursed and dressed slate with granite dressings. Steeply pitched hipped
slate roof with heavy coved eaves cornice, breaking forward over corner pilasters.
Square on plan. Two storeys, attic and basement. Five bays. Tall narrow sash
windows in exposed boxing with thick glazing bars restored by Lutyens, set in
segmentally arched openings. Centre first floor window is rusticated granite
architrave. Central doorway with heavy rusticated granite pilasters and voussoirs,
attached slender Tuscan columns, on large bases, supporting moulded hood on carved
scroll brackets. Approached by a flight of steps with C20 wrought iron balustrade.
Three hipped dormers with moulded cornices and casement windows. Large chimney
stacks with dentilled cornices. South side five bays, but without rusticated
centrepiece, built over basement across which a segmentally arcaded terrace was built
in 1873, and improved by Lutyens by the addition of steps and slate-on-edge paving.
Dining room wing at right angles on south west corner by Lutyens. Built of green
slate ashlar, with hipped slate roof with coved eaves breaking forward over corner
pilasters. Single storey, with three tall windows, facing garden, in deep reveals
with shutters. The link to main house has tall doorway in plain architrave with
keyblock and roundel in square recess. Very large sundial on south side. The wing
is built over wide segmental arches to open lower ground level.
Interior: largely intact including bolection moulded panelling and cornices. Apart
from the bolection chimneypiece in the hall the chimneypieces are later. Staircase
with three twisted balusters per tread with moulded hand rail ramped up to newels.
Pilaster cornice of staircase landing is enriched with acanthus leaves. The Lutyens
dining room has a moulded cornice and chimneypiece, a pair of giant non-structural
columns at the entrance end and a vaulted corridor connecting it to the main house.
Reference: Country Life Volume 120 pages 190-193 and 238-241.

Listing NGR: SX6086047813

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17527021

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

• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)