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

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26491959

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

• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas