Description

TM 07 SW WATTISFIELD CHAPEL ROAD

3/93 Wattisfield Hall, Garden
15/11/54 Walls and Gate Piers
(formerly listed as Wattisfield
GV Hall and two farms)

II*

Farmhouse, formerly manorial. Early C17. Timber-framed and rendered with
plaintiled roofs. 2 storeys and attics. The main house is in a single long.
range with central entry and gable-end chimnney-stacks. Both stacks are in
red brick, set externally, on the left with 5 shafts, on the right with 3. 2
similar stacks on the rear wall each have 2 shafts. All these stacks are
similar in style: the high octagonal shafts have moulded bases and starred
caps, and were clearly intended as a display feature, although they do relate
to 12 hearths in the house. 5 windows to the upper floor of the front, 4 to
the lower, all tripartite early C19 sashes with vertical glazing-bars only.
One of the upper windows is in the 2-storey porch containing the entry: this
porch is jettied on 3 sides, with the upper part of the 2 corner posts
projecting from the plaster; 4-light side openings each have heavily turned
C17 balusters; rectangular doorway; flat-topped roof with hipped sides.
Entrance door inside with 6 raised fielded panels. On the rear wall the
chimney-stacks are set between 3 short gabled wings with projecting tie-beams,
rendered. The central wing has an original 6-light oriel window on the upper
floor with ovolo-moulded mullions and transome, now blocked by the insertion
of a stair against it. At the left end of the front, a later C17 extension of
similar height and in matching materials, with a gabled rear the same size as
the rear wings. This is divided off from the main house and unoccupied.
Attached to its south-east corner is a small single-storey C18 outhouse in red
brick, laid in English Bond, with a tumbled gable incorporating an end
chimney-stack and pantiled roof. Interior with little timbering exposed; 5
wide bays to main house; ovolo-moulding to some main beams. A fine series of
fireplaces throughout the house. The rear stacks each have a hearth on ground
and first floor, all with shallow, almost flat, brick arches and chamfered
surrounds. Both gable end stacks have fireplaces to each floor and to the
attic: on the left ground floor room the hearth is immense, perhaps originally
for a kitchen, with the shallow arched opening repaired in C20 render. The
right end of the house had the most ornate fireplaces with square surround and
an inset 4-centred depressed arch, all ovolo-moulded. The house seems to have
had more than one early C17 phase, but its present internal layout reflects
C19 changes, and the earlier form is difficult to deduce. The present stair,
in the central rear wing, is clearly an insertion with 2 sections of resited
Jacobean balusters and Edwardian newel-posts. Part of an older newel stair
remains for the attic storey. Roof, formerly lighted by windows in the apex
of the rear wing gables, in 11 irregularly-spaced bays, with 2 rows unstepped
butt purlins. Ownership of the manor and site is well-documented, and the
present house is thought to have been built for John Osborne, who bought the
manor from Sir Robert Jermyn in 1592, and died in 1619. Joined to each end of
the house, and surrounding the front garden on all 3 sides, is a high wall
with gate piers: C17 red brick laid in English Bond, topped by a course of
inward-sloping coping bricks with a roll-moulding above. The widely-spaced
gate piers, square, rusticated in bands, with shallow conical tops, are on the
street frontage, in line with the porch.

Listing NGR: TM0083473872

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17540249

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

• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)