downtonbuildings

Listing description: Farmhouse. Mid/Late C19. Flemish bond brick, half- hipped tiled roof. T-plan. 2-storey, 2- window entrance front. Centre bay projects with segmental-headed planked door, to right is single casement, first floor has single casement to right and to centre, over door. Left return has 2-light casement to ground and first floor. Rear has external stack with tumbling-in of offsets, 2- light and 1-light casements. Attached to right return is single-storey outhouse with planked door and cast- iron casement. Interior not inspected. Unaltered example of estate cottage, of Trafalgar Estate.

Former occupiers: Walter John Windsor (1935); John P Sutherland (1964- 1968).

Old Dairy Cottage, Standlynch Farm

Old Forge, Standlynch Farm

Old Forge Cottage, Standlynch Farm

Priory Barn, Standlynch Farm

Railway Structures

The old railway line runs to the north of Barford Lane and Standlynch. A few bridges remain and I hope to list these at a later stage.

Saddler Cottage, Standlynch Farm

Shepherds Lodge

Formerly known as Peewit Cottage.

Frank Coffin (1935); Mr Barrett (1950s); F M Blewett (1964- 68).

Dave Barrett: Peewit Cottage belonged to a local farm and was a tied cottage. My father worked on the farm and had the cottage rent free for a while. My sister was picked up on the corner of the cottage and taken to school but I don't know which. I remember, aged about 4, climbing a tree across the road and falling down and seriously injuring my back. The butcher on his rounds heard me and took me to my mother in the cottage. It took me some years to find the place again.

Standlynch Chapel

A grade II listed building, formerly listed as Standlynch Roman Catholic Church.

Listing description: Private chapel, now redundant. Medieval church rebuilt 1677, restored 1859-66 by William Butterfield. Limestone ashlar with flint chequers, tiled roof.
Plan: nave, chancel, north chapel, south porch. Porch by Butterfield has timber-framed gable and double- chamfered doorway. South side of nave has two 2-light square-headed cusped windows. South side of chancel has one 2-light square-headed cusped window, east end has 3-light Perpendicular- style window and north side has 2- light square-headed cusped window. North side of nave has two 2-light square-headed cusped windows and to left a flat-roofed chapel with ashlar stack with moulded capping and 2-light pointed window, coved eaves cornice to nave. West end has 2-light pointed window, above are heraldic arms, probably of Bockland Family with date 1677. All windows C19. Roof has coped verges on kneelers, cross finials over gables.
Interior: Diagonally-laid black and white marble floor. Nave has plastered wagon roof, wood-panelled walls. Hollow-chamfered pointed chancel arch on grouped shafts, either side are reset C14 niches. Chancel has panelled wagon roof. Some good stained glass in south and west windows, all to the Nelson family and of c.1900. Large Gothic memorial on north wall of nave, finely grained limestone, with pointed arch, crockets and pinnacles, to Thomas Nelson, died 1835, the nephew of Admiral Nelson. A fine rococo C18 marble monument on south wall has fine floral carving and scrolled pediment with urn finial; to Joane Penrodock, Mrs Bockland died 1689 and who restored this church in 1677. Classical marble tablet on south wall to Thomas Nelson, died 1835, by Osmond of Sarum.
History: Little survives of an original Medieval church on this site, probably built for the now demolished Standlynch House which was replaced by Trafalgar House in 1733. The Bockland family of the earlier house rebuilt the chapel in 1677. It became the Nelson family's private chapel after they were given Standlynch House, renamed Trafalgar House; the family were responsible for the restoration of C19.

PEVSNER: ‘Built in 1677 and consists of nave and chancel only. Restoration by Butterfield, 1859-66 (P. Thompson). Flint and stone in chequer pattern. Gables on big coping-stones. The windows with arched cusped lights look C19 rather than C17. The two niches left and right of the chancel arch must be medieval - of the C14. The W window could be C14 too.
Monuments - Mrs Joan Bockland died 1689. Tablet with bow-front. Two blank columns with white capitals left and right, openscrolly pediment with garlands. Thomas Nelson. By Osmond, 1839. Standing monuments in the Gothic style. Tomb-chest, recess, arch, canopy’.

An old church on this site, dedicated to St. Mary, is thought to have been founded in 1147 as a daughter church of Downton. In the 17th century the Lords of Standlynch Manor were Roman Catholics and may have used the church for masses.

It was substantially rebuilt in 1677, although part of the late medieval chancel survives, by Maurice Buckland - then Lord of the Manor, for use as a private chapel. The chapel was restored in 1846 by Horatio, 3rd Earl Nelson and services were conducted by his private chaplain. The residents of Charlton and Standlynch were allowed to use the church until the Church of All Saints was built in Lower Road, Charlton in 1851 (see separate entry).

During 1859-66 the church was restored and rebuilt in the early Gothic style by William Butterfield. In 1914 Thomas, 4th Earl Nelson, converted to the Roman Catholic faith and used the church as a private chapel, served by a resident priest. The chapel was rededicated to Mary Queen of Heaven and St Michael and All Angels. It contains one bell, dated 1726, and has been closed since 1947 when the Nelson family sold the Trafalgar Estate.

Standlynch Dairy

Former occupiers: George Earney (1935- 1953).

Standlynch Farm House

Former occupiers: Bernard T Sheppard (1935); Gordon Arthur Carter (1953- 1968).

Standlynch Lodge

A grade II listed building.

Listing description: Lodge cottage to Trafalgar House. c1860. Flemish bond brick with vitrified headers, Welsh slate roof, brick stacks. T-plan. 2- storey, 3-window. Central 2-storey porch with planked door and leaded cross window with hoodmould, either side is one similar cross window. First floor has 2-light casements and one single casement. Right return has canted bay with casements facing drive to house, with ornamental slate roof. Rear has one single casement to ground floor. Stacks on rear roof pitch, one is octagonal and particularly ornamental. Interior not inspected.

Former occupiers: Peter Chatfield (1968).

Standlynch Mill

A grade II listed building, upgraded from grade III.

Listing description: Mill on River Avon, now disused, with cottage. Late C18, C19 remodelling. English bond brick with stepped plinth and vitrified headers, half-hipped tiled roof, brick stacks. L-plan with single- storey C18 wing and late C19 extension. Single-storey and attic, 5 windows. Stable door in chamfered case with initials MB 1698 on lintel, planked door to right and 2-light casements and louvred windows to left. Five hipped dormers to roof, one with 2-light latticed leaded casements. Left return has several louvred windows. Right return has 2-light casements to ground and first floors. Rear has louvred windows and semi- circular arch over mill race to right, to left are 2-light casements.
Interior has chamfered beams with runout stops, cupboard with butterfly hinges in west room, 6-bay roof with original C17 trusses, tie-beam with raking struts to collar and two tiers of butt purlins, the upper tier with straight wind bracing. The initials MB are of Maurice Bockland of the original Standlynch House nearby, demolished c1733; his wife rebuilt Standlynch Chapel 1677.

Former occupiers: Pierce Reidy (1935); John Lawrence (1968).

Trafalgar Gardens

Former occupiers: Michael E Hill (1964- 1968).

Trafalgar House

Formerly known as Standlynch.

A grade I listed building.

Listing description: Country house. 1733 by John James for Peter Vandeput, wings and pavilions of 1766 by John Wood the Younger for Henry Dawkins, second floor added shortly before portico of 1766 by Nicholas Revett. Flemish bond brick with chamfered limestone quoins, wings are English bond, Welsh slate hipped roofs, brick stacks with stone cappings. Central rectangular block with side wings linking two pavilions. 3-storey, 7-bay symmetrical front. Central Doric portico by Revett has pairs of columns of Order of The Temple of Apollo at Delos, projecting pediment and balustraded parapet, double half- glazed doors in Gibbs surround, three 12-pane sashes either side. First floor has seven sashes; all windows with Gibbs surrounds. Modillioned cornice to second floor; seven 6-pane sashes in moulded architraves. Moulded cornice to blocking course. Returns have rainwater heads with date 1733. 5- bay right return has blind windows to left and right, sashes to centre bays same as front. Left return has 3 bays with sashes same as front and fine Venetian window lighting stairs to centre bay of first floor. Rear of main block has 3 storeys and basement, 7 windows same as front, centre 3 bays break forward with modillioned pediment and central glazed doors with segmental pediment on Tuscan columns, basement has 2-light casements. Linking wings are single-storey with basement and 5 windows; 12-pane sashes. Pavilions have 2 storeys and basements, 3:3:3 bays to fronts at right angles to main block. Centre bays break forward with hipped roof, 12-pane sashes with flat-arched heads, French windows to 3-bay returns and Venetian windows with grooved surrounds and paterae to centre bays of outward-facing fronts, 2-light leaded casements to basements. Hipped roofs with moulded cornices and blocking courses.
Interior: Fittings of main block mostly of 1733; open well stairs on south side with 3 turned balusters to a tread and carved spandrels, very fine entrance hall with coved plaster ceiling with rococo decoration, walls with Corinthian pilasters, floral swags and chinoiserie panels, open pedimented doors and fireplace, modillioned ceiling cornice. Saloon in similar style. Room to left of hall has fine painted decoration of c1766 by J. B. Cipriani, depicting allegorical scenes. Other internal decor by Revett, including fine ceiling, in north pavilion. Rococo and classical fireplaces, double doors and doors with fielded panels and central beading. North pavilion refitted early C19, south pavilion entirely refitted following fire of 1866. Estate bought by Treasury after death of Dawkins in 1814 and given to heirs of Admiral Viscount Nelson, in gratitude for his services. The house was then occupied by his brother, 1st Earl Nelson and the name of the house changed from Standlynch House to Trafalgar House. House of 1733 built to replace an earlier house by the river, demolished by Vandeput.

The following structures at Trafalgar House are grade II listed buildings in their own right:

Balustraded walling to front of Trafalgar House
Listing description: Low walls with balustraded panels 1859 by William Butterfield. Brick with bond of two courses of headers to one of alternate stretchers and headers, vitrified headers, vase balusters. Moulded limestone coping with urn finials. Very similar in style to balustraded parapet on Revett porch.

Steps and dwarf walls in gardens to rear of Trafalgar House
Listing description: Two flights of 6 stone steps up to garden entrance of house, with Flemish bond brick dwarf walls with moulded stone coping and urn finials on piers.

Stables at Trafalgar House with attached walls
Listing description: Two parallel stable blocks. Late C18. English bond brick, Welsh slate hipped roofs, brick stacks. 2-storey, 11-window fronts. 4- panelled doors, stable doors with semi- circular heads and large panelled carriage doors at east ends of blocks, windows to ground floors are pivot- hung. First floor has 8-pane sashes and 4-panelled doors. Dentilled eaves cornice. Interiors have tiled floors, planked and cast-iron loose boxes with feed troughs and cast-iron loops with lions heads for tethering. The two blocks face each other across a narrow cobbled yard, semi-circular brick walls enclose yard at either end.

PEVSNER: ‘Trafalgar House, or, as it was then called, Standlynch, was built in 1733 for Sir Peter Vandeput, a city man whose ancestors had immigrated under Queen Elizabeth. His sister was married to Roger Morris, carpenter, principal engineer to the Board of Ordnance, and, as we know from Wilton and Goodwood, an architect as well. He may be regarded as the designer of the house of 1733 which is the centre of the present house. After Vandeput's death the house went to Henry Dawkins. For him John Wood the Younger of Bath added the wings and Nicholas Revett the elaborate porch. Dawkins' brother had been with Robert Wood to Asia Minor and Athens and had financed Athenian Stuart's and Revett's stay and study at Athens. Henry Dawkins too was a member of the Society of Dilettanti.
The centre of the house is a rather uncompromising block of brick with stone dressins, seven bays wide and two and a half storeys high, with the half-storey above the cornice. Both main fronts, E, the entrance side, and W, the garden side, have Gibbs surrounds to the windows. So has the E doorway. To the garden there is a three-bay pediment, and the doorway has Tuscan columns, a metope frieze, and a segmental pediment. To the entrance there is Revett's porch, hiding the centre of the ground floor. It is a complicated composition, stepping forward in the centre, where there is a pediment, and with the columns grouped in pairs. There are fourteen columns altogether, and they are of the rare Greek Doric kind, where fluting only shows right at the top and right at the bottom - imitating the unfinished late C4 columns of the Temple of Apollo on Delos. This is one of the earliest uses of a Grecian order in England and as such memorable, even if the composition is entirely un-Grecian. The end pavilions are very substantial, three by none bays, and two-storeyed, and are connected with the house by corridor links. The total length of the house is about 300ft. The balustrade in front of the house is by Butterfield, 1859 (P Thompson).
The interior is not one of date. The staircase alone is convincingly of 1733, large, with a spacious open well, a bold curve at the start for which the corner below was filled in, a hand-rail with three slender balusters to each tread and carved tread-ends, and a Palladin or Jonesian stucco ceiling. In the hall at the centre of the overmantel is indeed a medallion with a bust of Inigo Jones, but the termini caryatids flanking the overmantel and the rich stucco decoration of the coved ceiling point to the forties or even fifties rather than the thirties. The hall is a cube, also a Jonesian conceit, and has giant pilasters. In the panels between them garlands under little Chinese baldacchinos. The saloon also has giant pilasters and a Rococo ceiling. The SE room has big, continuous wall paintings crowding the whole walls above the dado. They were painted by Cipriani in 1766 and represent the Arts. In the NW corner is the library with a handsome chimney piece with symbols of art and learning in the frieze.
In the end pavilions there are principal rooms too. In the S pavilion is the dining room. The broad Venetian window has cast-iron columns inside, decorated at the bottom and with figures at the top. In the N pavilion is a handsome small lobby with four Roman Doric columns set in the corners, Revett rather than Wood. The adjoining room with the Venetian window corresponding to that of the dining room has a circular centre motif in the stucco of the ceiling.
Standlynch was given by the nation to Nelson's heirs in 1814. Hence its name Trafalgar House. Of that time the Ganges Room on the top floor, with fluted pilasters and panels from the bow of the Ganges. The gardens were originally laid out by Charles Bridgeman’.

Trafalgar House and estate was used as the setting for ‘Chelworth’, a BBC drama series in eight parts, devised by John Hawkesworth and Brian Thompson and broadcast in 1989. In the series the unexpected death of the 6th Earl of Hincham leaves his younger brother (played by Peter Jeffrey), as heir to both his title and his neglected estate - Chelworth. The family expects him to dispose of the estate but he has other ideas. The series also starred Gemma Jones, Martin Jarvis, Sebastian Shaw and Phyllida Law. Other locations in the area were also used for one-off scenes. (Source: www.ftvdb.bfi.org.uk).

According to the Exeter Domesday book, Standlynch was held by Walter de Falaise and Waleran The Hunter, and in the reign of King Edward II (1307- 1327) by a man named La Dune. Later owners or occupiers were: Thomas Merit (1399); The Green family (1549-1585); The Bockland family (1585-1726); Sir Peter Vandeput (1726-1752); Sir William Young (1752-1766); Henry Dawkins (1766-1814); The Earls Nelson (1814-1947); The Duke Of Leeds (1947); Captain Rt. Hon. Oliver Lyttleton DSO MC MP (1953) and Viscount P C Chandos DSO MC (1964-1968).

Undercliff Cottage

Former occupiers: B Thomas (1964).

Weavers Cottage, Standlynch Farm

Witherington Farm

Witherington Farmhouse and the attached cottage is a grade II listed building, upgraded from grade III.

Listing description: Farmhouse. c1700. Flemish bond brick, with C18 addition in English bond, tiled roofs, brick stacks. Late C18 cottage to rear is Flemish bond brick. L-plan. 2-storey, 5-window front. Central 6-panelled door has segmental head with keystone, and gabled porch, to right are two 3- light and one single casement, to left are two 12-pane sashes and one single casement. First floor has 2-brick plat band and five 2-light leaded casements. Two hipped dormers to roof, saddleback coped verges. To right is C18 bay with one 3-light casement, windowless right return and rear with casements. Left return has 12-pane sash to ground and first floors. Rear of main range has casements and tile- hung gabled extension. Rear cottage has planked door in porch to north front and segmental-headed casements to ground floor, first floor has four C19 2-light casements. Attached to right of cottage front is one-bay workshop in English bond with vitrified headers, planked door and casements. Rear outshut to cottage.
Interior has pine fireplace with Ionic pilasters to south end, chamfered beams and fireplace lintel to north end, panelled dado and some reset partition panelling. Stairs have reused turned balusters. Attic with planked doors with strap hinges. This house mentioned in 1648 Parliamentary Survey; 3-bay timber-framed house, prior to rebuilding in brick c1700.

The following buildings at Witherington Farm are also grade II listed buildings in their own right (all upgraded from grade III):

Cart shed to north east of Witherington Farmhouse
Listing description: Cartshed. Mid C18. Weatherboarding on timber-frame to rear and side walls, hipped thatched roof. 6-bay. Open-front has curved bracing to wall plate from posts. Tie-beam roof with bracing to tie-beam, raking struts to cover and clasped butt purlins.

Large granary to north-east of Witherington Farmhouse
Listing description: Granary. Early C19. Weatherboarding on timber-frame, on staddlestones, half-hipped Welsh slate roof. 3 bays. Double planked doors on south side. Left return has inserted doors with access through to barn. Interior has upper floor and renewed roof.

Two storey barn to north of Witherington Farmhouse
Listing description: Two storey barn. Early C19. Flemish bond brick, tiled half-hipped roof. 2-storey building at right angles to large granary. West front has three segmental-headed planked doors and two small casements, one large sliding door. Right return has sliding door and loft door to first floor. Rear access to adjoining granary. Toothed eaves, cornice, added mid C19 bay to right in English bond with vitrified headers. Interior has brick partition walls. Roof trusses have cover and clasped purlins, but no tie-beam, instead have 'H' struts to first floor below eaves level. Chamfered beams to first floor, supporting roof. Building now used-for processing grain.

Small granary to north of Witherington Farmhouse
Listing description: Granary. c1700. Weatherboarding on timber-frame, on staddlestones, half-hipped tiled roof. 2-bay. One planked door on south side. Interior has planked corn bins. Roof has interrupted tie-beam truss, with vertical struts from lower cross rail to collar and central post from ground floor to cross rail supporting upper floor.

Cowshed to north west of Witherington Farmhouse
Listing description: Cowshed. Early C19. Flemish bond brick, half-hipped tiled roof. Single storey, four planked doors and small shuttered windows to east and west sides. Very shallow-pitched roof, with air brick vents to ridge. Interior has timber partitions. Tie-beam roof with king post. Attached at north end to barn.

Barn to north west of Witherington Farmhouse
Listing description: Barn. Late C18. Weatherboarding on timber-frame, on low English bond brick plinth, half- hipped tiled foor. 6-bay. Double planked doors to left of centre, to left and right are two 9-pane fixed windows with louvred tops. Interior has V-struts to walls. Roof trusses have tie-beams braced to jowled main posts raking struts to collar, two tiers of butt purlins.

Several generations of Newmans lived in cottages at Witherington Farm in the 19th and 20th centuries. (Source; Wiltshire Family History Society magazine, Issue 108, January 2008).

During the 1970s Poem Antiques operated a workshop at Witherington Farm. Their shop was at 115 The Borough.

Former occupiers: John Parker Harding (1935); R Gibbons (1953-1968).