Description

SEEND HIGH STREET
ST 9461
(south side)
12/301 Seend Green House
19.3.62
GV II

House, late C17 altered and extended 1760 for Mary Duchess of
Somerset, ashlar with slate low-pitched hipped roofs. Square plan
3-storey main house with L-plan east end 3-storey service range.
Main north front has moulded plinth, dripcourse stepped over ground
floor windows, plain string over first floor, moulded cornice and
parapet. Windows all recessed chamfered 2-light mullion windows
with traces of removed transom. Early C19 small-paned sashes with
Gothic pointed glazing bars to top panes. Six-panel door in
moulded architrave set in early C19 Tudor-arched ashlar porch with
carved arms. West end wall is rubble stone with string, cornice
and parapet carried round and 5-window range of blocked openings to
two upper floors. Ground floor has c1900 projecting room,
rendered with parapet and 3-window range to south front matching
windows of main range adjoining. South front is apparently c1760
but uneven spacing of 6-window range suggests that it incorporates
part of C17 house. String courses, moulded cornice and parapet,
sash windows in plain raised surrounds, 12-pane to second floor,
15-pane to first floor and French windows to ground floor.
Openings of fourth bay are false. Half glazed door in third bay
in moulded architrave with segmental pediment on consoles, obscured
by early C19 Roman Doric porch. All windows have Gothic heads to
top panes. From north-east angle projects L-plan service wing
with various c1900 lower additions to south. Rendered with ashlar
cornice and parapet and 2-light windows in plain architraves, 4
windows visible on second floor of south front, ground floor and
part of first floor obscured. Blank rubble stone east wall has
plaque under cornice 'Built by the Dfs of Somerset 1760' and fine
lead rainwater head. North front, rendered, has one-window range
of 2-light windows to projecting left side and similar one-window
range to right side, in line with main north front, from which the
string courses are continued in cement. Windows have sashes with
Gothic heads to top panes.
Interior: early C19 Gothic cornices to main rooms on south front
and early C19 staircase. House was the principal house of Seend
from the C17, said to date from 1620. In the 1660s the house was
owned by John Somner (1622-70), friend of John Aubrey and in 1716
passed to Edward Seymour, who became 8th Duke of Somerset 1750 and
died 1757. The house was rebuilt for his widow (d.1768) in 1760,
and remained in possession of the Dukes of Somerset into the C19.
The early C19 alterations were probably for C. Tylee, banker who
leased the house c1820-5.
(J. Aubrey, Natural History of Wiltshire, ed. J. Britton, 1847, 21;
E. Bradby, Seend A Wiltshire Village, 1981, 36, 185-91)

Listing NGR: ST9490361186

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26536493

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

• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)