Description

DARTMOUTH

SX8751 MOUNT BOONE 673-1/5/181 (South side) No.17 The Keep, including service courtyard, boundary wall and gateways

II

House set in its own grounds. 1850, according to the deeds, with extensive repair and modernisation in the 1970s. Brown-coloured local stone rubble with red brick and some cream-coloured sandstone dressings (rear service rooms are rendered); rendered chimneyshafts with large castellated crests; asbestos slate roof. PLAN: Front block has a 2-room plan, flanked by large corner drum turrets; another drum turret immediately behind the right corner turret is the entrance hall and contains the main stair. A corridor runs from the entrance hall behind the front rooms separating the principal rooms from the original service rooms behind. EXTERIOR: Gothick in style. 2 storeys with attics and 3-storey turrets; nearly-symmetrical 0:3:1-window front. The left corner turret has blind vertical slits. The centre, the main block, has large pointed-arch openings lined with red brick and with moulded stone cranked-arch hoodmoulds. The windows are all arch-headed with glazing bars and margin panes, but the left bay contains casements with fixed pane heads, ground-floor right is double French windows, and the rest are horned sashes. Right corner turret contains similar sash windows, the ground-floor one with an arch-headed hoodmould; plain casements with glazing bars to the third floor. Turrets and front have crenellated parapets, the turrets rise higher and the parapets are now rendered. The same style is carried round to the right side, the entrance front. The entrance turret contains a square-headed doorway under a timber flat hood with reeded edges supported on a pair of reused C17 oriel brackets carved as animals. Timber doorframe a pointed arch with simple surround and spandrels, containing studded plank door with good original wrought-ironwork. Stair window above a tall lancet with top Y-tracery. Similar window to rear for service stair, the lower part blocked by late C20 lean-to extension. Rendered service block contains various sash and casement windows with glazing bars. Hipped parallel roofs connected by kitchen wing roof. INTERIOR: Main entrance through the `cupboard' lobby under the stairs. Circular stair has open string and is late C17 in style with large turned newel posts and balusters, curtail step and a large moulded handrail in several sections, as if the builder had great difficulty accommodating the curve and the ramps. Rest of the house has standard Victorian detail; panelled doors, plaster reeded cornices, at least one marble chimneypiece and stick-baluster service stair (close to the service bells), etc. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Service courtyard and boundary walls: cobbled yard alongside (south-west of) the kitchen range with single-storey former coach house beyond (now converted to garage). Tall wall separates coach house from the garden (set well back from the house front) and continues with crenellated parapet as gable end of coach house. Front gable end onto road contains loading hatch. Boundary wall to Mount Boone contains 2 gateways and an arch-headed doorway - all plain timber, some rebuilt as they were, and all with good original ferramenta. HISTORY: Built to look like a medieval castle in a prominent position on a steep hillside facing south-east towards the mouth of the estuary. The owner has the documents, including the original lease from HP Seale to JW Wooldridge dated 1850 and stipulating that the house should cost no less than »3000.

Listing NGR: SX8738351499

External Links

• Wikidata Q26491959

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Recommended Books

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  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
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  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
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  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas