History

The earliest house on the present site is said to have been built c1585 by Rowland Dawkins, although nothing of that date is now visible. By 1740 it had been rebuilt as a double-pile house, the core of which became service rooms when the house was subsequently extended by William Dawkins, who died in 1774. The architect is unknown but the castellated additions are similar to Fonmon Castle of the 1760s and Wenvoe Castle of 1776. At this time a new range was added on the W side to make an impressive garden front, while on the N side the range was added to the earlier house altered to create a regular entrance front. Further addition was made c1800 when a service wing was added adjacent to the existing service rooms, integral with which was a stable yard. From the early C19 the house was no longer inhabited by the Dawkins family and by 1820 it was owned by Thomas Penrice of Great Yarmouth. During the 1939-45 war it was occupied by RAF officers and was subsequently converted to an Outdoor Education Centre.

Exterior

A Georgian country house with an L-shaped plan, of 3 storeys under hipped roofs behind castellated parapets and rendered walls painted white. The entrance front on the N side is 5 bays, of which the L side is the converted C18 double-pile house. A central entrance portico has 4 cast iron Tuscan columns beneath a plain entablature. The door has fielded panels under an overlight with Y tracery. The windows are mainly sashes, although some are now blind, with plain architraves and sill bands to the middle and upper storeys. The garden front on the W side is characterised by splayed projecting bays set back from the angles, between which are 3 narrower bays. The windows are placed at a different level to the entrance front and are mainly sashes and casements inserted into the original openings, some of which are blind. In the lower storey are lunettes, one of which, in the R-hand splayed bay, was converted into a segmental-headed escape doorway c1979 and has a glazed door. The middle storey windows, lighting the principal rooms, are larger than the upper storey windows. Between middle and upper storeys is a plat band. The N wall is blank except for an inserted escape stair and door. The rear wall has plainer details. Behind the garden front is a full-height projection added probably c1800. This is entered on the S side through an added glazed lean-to leading to a half-lit boarded door with semi-circular overlight giving access to the rear stairs. Adjacent to the projection is a small gabled toilet. The service wing added c1800 is on the E side of the entrance front and is set well back from the main elevation. It is 2-storey with slate roof and is lower than the main house, which has 2 sash windows in the E wall above the roof line of the service wing. The N wall is roughcast painted white. At the R end is a 1-storey lean-to with panelled door and fixed-pane window to its R. To the L of this is a 12-pane sash window, a boarded door, another boarded door under an overlight, an inserted door with vents, then an external stair of brick with stone treads to a doorway at the upper L end. This has a modern escape door in an earlier opening. The upper storey also has 4 sash windows. The E end of the service wing is attached to the stable court. The rear side is continuous with the main house, and is of whitewashed rubble stone. It is built into a steep bank, where steps lead down to lower storey openings on the L side. These consist of a segmental-headed doorway and 2 boarded-up segmental-headed windows to its L. In the upper storey are 3 sash windows. Further R, where the ground level is higher, are 2 wide 3-light casements in the upper storey, of which one light is boarded up in the R-hand window.

Interior

The main door opens to a stair hall that has a replaced open-well stair but retains classical plaster cornices to the middle and upper storeys, while the lower and middle storeys have late C19 panelling. The principal rooms form a piano nobile on the 1st floor and overlook the garden to the W. They are reached from a corridor which has a cornice with dentils and paterae and doorways that have fluted friezes to the architraves and replaced doors. The principal rooms comprise a central dining room, with a drawing room on the N side and library on the S side. The drawing and dining room have panelled shutters. Doorways between the rooms retain panelled doors, some with beaded surrounds to the architraves, and have fluted friezes to the overdoors. The dining room fireplace has a marble surround and a fine wooden chimney piece with Ionic columns, floral trails to the entablature and martial trophies with quivers of arrows above the columns. Plaster wall panels have egg-and-dart mouldings to the borders and paterae to the concave corners. The ceiling cornice incorporates a frieze of vases, anthemion sprays and egg-and-dart mouldings, while the ceiling has a central ribbed oval panel. The drawing room also has a rich cornice with paterae, garlands, vases and egg and dart, and a ceiling with an oval panel. The walls have plaster panels similar to the dining room. The fireplace has a marble surround and a wooden chimney piece with a frieze of floral garlands flanked by consoles supporting a moulded cornice. The small library at the S end of the range has a planer details. The fireplace is flanked by recesses (probably intended for books), and the windows have moulded reveals and cupboards below the sills. In the lower storey are service rooms, including at the SW corner a brick-vaulted wine cellar retaining original bins, and a strong room with iron door beneath the later service stair at the S end. In the room on the NW side, set above the mantelpiece, is a cast iron fireback with relief moulding: Pilasters with twisted columns and Ionic capitals frame a prancing horse and a cowering figure, the date 1674 (the last 2 digits reversed) and the initials CR (Charles II). On the E side of the main house is a dog-leg service stair with round newels and thin square balusters.

Reasons for Listing

Listed grade II*, Kilvrough Manor is a substantial castellated Georgian country house with earlier origins, retaining original character and fine neo-classical interior detail.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Kilvrough Manor at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17743929

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

• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)