Welton Manor, Welton le Wold, Lincolnshire

Summary

House, with associated estate buildings to the north-west. Built in about 1860 in a combination of the Classical and Gothic Revival style.

Description

House, with associated estate buildings to the north-west. Built in about 1860 in a combination of the Classical and Gothic Revival style.

MATERIALS: constructed of yellow brick laid in English bond with a decorative brick eaves cornice and red brick banding. The timber, hornless sash windows, with margin glazing, are set beneath Caernarvon arched heads to the principal elevations and flat heads to the service range; the heads and cills are of stone. The hipped roofs are covered with slate tiles with clay ridge tiles. Tall brick chimney stacks with dentilled cornices and clay pots.

PLAN: two storey and roughly ‘L’ shaped in plan comprising the double-pile polite range with the principal rooms to the south-east of an axial corridor that leads off the entrance hall. The corridor turns at a right angle to access the service range which has a cellar beneath.

EXTERIOR: the principal elevation faces south-east and has a central section of three bays flanked by full-height projecting bays with two-storey canted bay windows with conical roofs. The south-west elevation forms the entrance façade and comprises a central, single-storey porch with a stone parapet and three-panel double doors set beneath a large transom window. To the rear (north-west) elevation is a Venetian window and an additional two bays to the left with sash windows to each floor. The service range projects to the north-west abutting the window heads and cills of the rear elevation of the house.

INTERIOR: the entrance hall has an extensive geometric tiled floor with encaustic tiles to the perimeter. To the centre are three blue and white tiles that incorporate the initials of John and Elizabeth Vessey and their coat of arms. The open-well oak staircase has square newel posts with finials, pendants and a curtail step, with a balustrade incorporating decorative panels of pierced quatrefoils and braces. The stone arched fireplace has quatrefoils and tiled inserts. Throughout, the interior retains most of its fireplaces, decorative cornices, ornate ceiling roses, as well as its joinery with panelled doors and window shutters. In at least one room is a bell push to the side of the fireplace.

ESTATE BUILDINGS: immediately opposite the north-west elevation of the service range, across a walled courtyard, is a single-storey, four bay range, and to the north-east side, the two-storey former groom’s cottage. Both are built of yellow brick with dentilled cornices and red brick cambered arch heads above the timber plank doors and casement windows. The roofs are covered in slate tiles. Further to the north-west are the remains of an additional walled courtyard with a single-storey coach house with timber doors, and a stable block with a central round arched entrance flanked by a pair of double doors and a window; to the left of the archway is a ridge stack. Both buildings are of yellow brick with clay tile roofs.

History

Welton Manor, a small country estate of yellow brick buildings set in about 40 acres of parkland, was built in around 1860 for a John Henry Vessey, a prominent sheep farmer, and his wife Elizabeth. Its use of mass-produced materials, yellow brick probably from Cambridgeshire, and slate tiles probably from Wales, was made possible by the arrival of the railway in Lincolnshire in 1846, with a station in nearby Louth opening in 1848.

The estate is shown on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey (OS) map (1888) and the footprint of the house and its estate buildings survive largely unaltered. Both the mid-C20 two-storey building to the gable end of the former stable, and the balustraded wall and steps to the south-east of the house, constructed of pre-cast concrete and added in the late 1990s, are not of special interest. It remains (2021) in private ownership.

Reasons for Listing

Welton Manor with associated estate buildings to the north-west, in Welton Le Wold, Lincolnshire is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a confident and well-executed design of quality in terms of both its architectural composition and sophisticated interpretation of the Classical and Gothic Revival styles;
* for its distinct corridor plan affording the maximum separation of public, private and servant spaces;
* for the high quality of the surviving bespoke fixtures including the principal staircase and the tiled entrance hall.

Historic interest:

* built in about 1860 it is a relatively early example of a small country house estate being built for a member of the aspiring middle class and reflects both the increasing availability of materials and growing awareness of architectural fashions at this time.

Group value:

* the associated estate buildings form an important component of the country house ensemble, retaining their architectural character as well as the legibility of their original function.

External Links

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