Description

ST 35 NW UPHILL ROAD SOUTH
Uphill
3/61

- II*

Large house. Probably c1805, extended 1835 by Henry Rumley of Bristol
for Thomas Knyfton, who bought the house in 1832 from a bankrupt Daniel
Beaumont Payne; further extended and internally refurbished in 1855 as
wedding present from Thomas Tutton Knyfton to his second wife, the
interior designs being probably by JG Crace after Augustus Welby Northmore
Pugin. Built of dressed and rubble limestone brought to course; ashlar quoins and
dressings; slate roofs with crenellated parapets and octagonal ashlar
stacks. PLAN: T-plan with rear service wing; the front (south) range has
right-of-centre porch to stairhall flanked by library to right, dining
room to far left and smoking room to centre; extensions of 1855 comprise
rear octagonal-plan hall with doorways opening into drawing room
projecting to rear right (east) and entrance hall and porch to rear;
conservatory, also of c1855, placed at angle between library and drawing
room. Picturesque Tudor Gothic style.
EXTERIOR: viewed from the south, the composition is mostly of 2 storeys,
with towers incorporating dining room to left and bedroom/services to
far left; to the right the bay including the library has also been made
into a tower, and a tall 3-storey octagonal tower is set over the
octagonal hall. Tudor-arched doorway to crenellated porch, and
stone-mullioned windows mostly with label moulds to 1:1:3:1
fenestration. Buttresses to library and dining room towers, and fine
carved gargoyles to octagonal tower and associated stack. Conservatory
and square bay (with quatrefoil-pierced parapet) lighting drawing room
have Tudor-arched windows, the Decorated-style 3-light windows (one
broken by arched doorway) to the rear porch ( with carved gargoyles to
parapet) being of a more roguish design; cusped lancets to rear entrance
tall. Mullioned windows of a more simple design to the rear.
INTERIOR: exceptionally fine and well-preserved interior, decorated in
Gothic Revival style by the firm of JG Crace in c1855, which includes
painted decoration, stencilling, wallpapers, gasoliers and elaborate
radiator covers. The rear entrance hall has Gothic-style oak outer door
and a single inner door in simpler style; the floor has patterned tiles
and the panelled ceiling is supported by carved corbels; the ceiling and
walls have stencilled decoration, the frieze has homely mottoes. This
leads to lobby with octagonal lantern light and then octagonal-plan hall
which has fine stencilled decoration, Gothic arches to each facet,
panelled ceiling and stone fireplace with overmantel following the shape
of the arch. The inner (south) hall has an open-well staircase with
barley-sugar balusters, a very fine Gothic lantern and a vaulted wooden
ceiling with moulded ribs to quadripartite vault supported on
foliate-carved stone corbels. Library has concave curved end walls with
fitted book shelves. Dining room has panelled walls and ceiling and
enriched cornicing. The drawing room, the most elaborate room in the
house, has a richly decorated and stencilled panelled vaulted ceiling
and fine wallpapers; matching overmantle mirrors over white marble
fireplace and marble-topped radiator cover. The service wing includes
cool rooms, larders and cast-iron kitchen range.
The most complete Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin-inspired Crace scheme in existence, with the exceptions of Abney Hall near Manchester and Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire. The wallpaper in the drawing room is to a Pugin design
used by Crace elsewhere and other decoration is adapted from Pugin's
designs. The stencil patterns are derived from Pugin's "Floriated
Ornament" published in 1849 and frequently used by Crace as a source in
the 1850s.

Listing NGR: ST3190959009

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17534259

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

• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)