Compton Wynyates

Details

COMPTON WYNYATES SP34SW 3/71 Compton Wynyates 02/09/52 (Formerly listed as Compton House and Pigeoncote)

GV I

Fortified Manor House. Mainly c.1500 and incorporating parts of earlier house. C18 additions. C19 and C20 repairs. Rose-red brickwork with dark brick diapering especially on the entrance front. Limestone dressings to doors and windows. Steeply pitched stone slate roofs with stone coped gables and stone battlement copings. Numerous brick ridge, lateral and end stacks with decorative mouldings. Courtyard plan. Entrance front: main range plus north and south ranges, 2 storeys plus attic. 3 bays. Corner turrets. Off-centre porch to right is flanked by gable-fronted half-timbered projecting bays. Irregular fenestration. 2-storey embattled porch has 4-centred arched entrance with decorated spandrels, on the left the arms of Katherine of Aragon, on the right the portcullis badge of the Tudors. Over the entrance the Royal Arms of England supported by the dragon and greyhound of Henry VII and Henry VIII. 3-light stone-mullioned window with 4-centred arched heads and continuous hood mould. Embattled parapet, the central panel bearing a sundial. Inner porch has moulded ribbed ceiling beams and C15 door. Low gabled bay to left has 4-light stone mullioned windows to ground and first floor with hood moulds and label stops and a 3-light mullioned windows to attic. Gable has herringbone timber-frame and carved bargeboards. Similar higher bay to right has 4-light stone-mullioned and transomed windows to ground and first floors with hood moulds and label stops. Attic has a 3-light window. Gable has herring-bone timber-frame and carved bargeboards. Elsewhere 2- and 3-light stone-mullioned windows to all storeys. South front includes a large, irregular embattled tower. To right a 5-light window to the chapel with transoms and arched heads. Rainwater heads dated IN/1723. East front has addition flanking east range. Rainwater heads dated IN 1732. Remodelled c.1867 by Sir Mathew Digby Wyatt. North front includes tower with 7-light wood-mullioned windows and 4-light ogee sectioned stone-mullioned window. Georgian brick parapet. Courtyard: 4-centred arched doorways and plank doors. Square-headed windows of 2-centred or 4-centred lights and cusped or uncusped heads. East range has large bay window to the hall noted as coming from Fulbroke Castle. 8-light stone-mullioned window to chapel range has king mullion and continuous hood mould and label stop. 4 gabled roof dormers to south range. Parapets, north renewed C20. Rainwater heads in courtyard dated IN 1732. Interior: Hall. C15 screens passage with linenfold panelling, incorporating earlier carved panels and C20 doors. Original hall roof replaced c.1512 by a 4-bay roof from Fulbroke Castle including a deeply carved frieze. C18 stone fireplace. Minstrel gallery has original roof of c.1480. Buttery at lower end of hall has linenfold panelling. Passage to kitchen has rail and muntin panelling. Dining Room. Plaster ceiling of 1620 and later. Panelling of 1620 and 1730 when whole was painted red. Open-well staircase by Digby-Wyatt. C19 wood and plaster ceiling above. Drawing Room: elaborately carved C16 fireplace and overmantel from Canonbury House, Islington. C16 plaster ceiling. Chapel Drawing Room: plaster ceiling and panelling c.1620. C20 stone fireplace. Wood-mullioned window with C20 glazing to chapel below. King Henry VIII's bedroom: plaster ceilng c.1625. Four-centred arched stone fireplace. Wood spiral stair to Council Chamber. C16 clapboard panelling and doors. Stone Tudor fireplace. Stone spiral stair to Priest's Room, added to the New Tower. Arched-braced collar roof, panelled on one side. Stone Tudor fireplace. Wood sill in front of south window has carved crosses. Ante chapel has oak and plaster screen. Chapel. Added by Sir William Compton. Screens with earlier panels carved on both sides. C20 stained glass. Noted as being the most perfect picture-book house of the Early Tudor decades (Pevsner). Formerly moated. Owned by the Compton family since at least the early C13. (V.C.H.: Warwickshire, Vol.V, p.60-67; Buildings of England: Warwickshire, 1981, pp.241-2; Guidebooks to Compton Wynyates pp.1-19; Wright, J., Brick Building in England from the Middle-Ages to 1550, 1972, pp.390-391).

Listing NGR: SP3306741811

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

305834

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Guidebook to Compton Wynyates, (), 1-19
Doubleday, AH, Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Warwick, (1949), 60-67
Pevsner, N, Wedgewood, A, The Buildings of England: Warwickshire, (1981), 241-2
Pevsner, N, Wedgewood, A, The Buildings of England: Warwickshire, (1981)
Wright, J A, Brick Building in England from the Middle Ages to 1550, (1972), 390-391

End of official list entry

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