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Summary

Late 17th century brick house retaining several original features.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1104009: MOUNT WEAR HOUSE

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX98NW/89
• Old Listed Building Ref (II)

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• HOUSE (Early Medieval to XXI - 1066 AD to 2009 AD)

Full description

Parker, R. W. + Steinmetzer, M. F. R., 2014, Historic Building Recording at Mount Wear House, Countess Wear Road, Exeter, Fig. 8, pl. 1,3, 4, 5, 6, 9 (Report - non-specific). SDV357696.

In 1765 Benjamin Donn’s map of Devon revealed Mount Wear House to have been occupied by Sir Guy Esqr, while an auction advert in the Exeter Flying Post in 1786 described fashionable household goods within the property, including chintz curtains, a japanned and chintz covered sofa and chairs, as well as inlaid mahogany bedroom furniture. Unfortunately no other details of the property were given.
The 1842 Tithe Map clearly shows the main house and a large building range at the eastern end, as well as three smaller agricultural buildings clustered around a central courtyard, and in 1876 a description of the house appeared in the Exeter Flying Post when the house was to let, when in addition to the main house the advertisement described pasture land, a walled garden, stable, coach house and gardener’s cottage.
By the 1888 Ordnance Survey map a small building had been added at the rear of the street frontage, while two further extensions were located at the eastern end of the main building range. A number of lean-to structures appeared at the rear of the eastern and southern buildings. The map also shows a now demolished range between the two surviving buildings, but with no indication of the building’s function. The northern end of the site remained a garden. The property was leased throughout the 1890’s tothe Chief Constable of Devon.
The property remained remarkably unaltered throughout the early 20th century, as is evidenced by the 1905 Ordnance Survey map. By 1919 Eva Mary, Lady Duckworth-King, had moved into the property and remained there until her death in 1921. Her son moved into Mount Wear House, and this seems to have provided the opportunity to rearrange the layout of the main building, including a new porch shown on the 1933 Ordnance Survey map.
The property was bought by The Youth Hostel Association in 1938. The sales particulars and plan show the property divided into 5 lots. Lot 1 comprised the main house, coach house, harness room, chauffeur’s room, wash house, store sheds, boiler room and coke shed; while lot 2 included the cottage, garden and outbuildings. The latter contained two stall stables, two loose boxes, harness room and coach house, and an engine house to pump water to the main house. Lots 3-5 were sold for residential development.
Refurbishment of the property in 2013 permitted closer inspection of the historic building fabric of the house and outbuildings, and allowed the identification of areas that contained original features and areas where these had been replaced. Although Mount Wear House has been greatly altered it is nevertheless part of a number of buildings along Countess Wear Road which retain features dating from the late 17th and 18th centuries.
The house is a two-storey structure with attics, constructed of cob and brick covered with painted render. The original core of the house is a rectangular range, aligned north east-south west, at right angles to the road, and originally crowned with chimney stacks on each of its gables. A three-storey wing projects from the south-west corner of the original building, along the roadside, and represents an early extension to the house, possibly dating to the late 17th or early 18th centuries. To the north-east of the main range a single storey extension was added in the 19th century. More recent additions, of 20th century date and concrete block construction, lie against the north-east and south-east ends of the house. These structures so completely obscure the rear of the house that the first impression from this side is of a highly irregular and scarcely imposing building. The modern extensions mask a curving stair tower which lies at the centre of the rear elevation of the primary range.
The north-west elevation of the house is its principal façade, presenting a two-storey elevation to the garden under a steeply-pitched slate roof pierced by gabled dormer windows and originally crowned by a small cupola or belvedere. This façade was originally designed to be symmetrical with a central doorway flanked by ground and first-floor windows spread across seven bays. This symmetry however has been lost due to the insertion of an early 20th century single–storey porch at the south western end. The ground floor is entered through a French door at the centre of the elevation which may originally have opened into a large central room, possibly a hall - this re-uses a moulded lintel from an earlier door. It is possible that this doorway replaces an earlier door to the south-west. Light is provided by three windows to the left of the doorway, and a single identical window to the right. The lower part of the elevation is constructed of cob above Heavitree stone, while from the level of the upper storey windows the walling consists of brick, suggesting that the roof line has at some period been raised above its original level. The main façade is decorated in stucco; the ground floor is rusticated while the first floor decoration is plain apart from a simple central decorated plaster panel and quoins at the south west end. There are three windows either side of the central plaster panel. At eaves level the building has a modillion cornice which continues along the Countess Wear Road elevation, tying in the late 17th century extension to the earlier building. The steeply-pitched roof is hipped to the south-west and gabled to the north-east and south-east. Three gabled dormer windows light the attics, while the chimney stacks at both ends and the central cupola or belvedere were removed when the roof was repaired in the 20th century. The extensions and outbuildings The side elevation of the main building presents a simple two-storey elevation running parallel with Countess Wear Road with irregular fenestration of various periods. The main range was lit by a ‘six-over-six’ sash window on the ground floor and a first floor oriel window with modillion decoration matching the cornice moulding. The 17th century extension is built of brick and lit along the road elevation by a further ‘six-over-six’ sash window and two side-hung casement windows providing light to the staircase. The south-eastern gable end was lit by a modern window on the ground floor, a casement window on the first floor and a ‘three-over-three’ sash window on the second floor. The 17th century extension is entered from the courtyard through a doorway with a modern panelled door. This elevation was lit by a single modern window on the ground floor and four late 17th century mullion-and-cross windows on the first floor, two of which have been boarded over. Two gabled dormer windows in the roof face the courtyard, with a single dormer on the opposite side. The roof of the extension is steeply pitched and gabled, joining awkwardly at an angle with the earlier building. The chimney stack at the gable end was removed when the roof was repaired. At the north eastern end of the main range was a single storey extension incorporating elements of an earlier cob building. The garden elevation consisted of two French windows and a single side-hung casement window, while the remainder had been obscured by modern extensions. At eaves level it had a dentillated cornice, while the roof is gently pitched and gabled. This range appears to date from the 19th century.
The interior of the front range had been severely altered to form an open plan dining hall. These alterations included the complete removal of the internal partitions defining the original rooms, thus destroying the historic plan of this area of the building. Some traces of the original interior arrangement remained within G01 in the form of decorative cornices and the original beams, now supported by modern steel joists, allowing a reconstruction of the original layout.
The most likely reconstruction of the original plan form of the ground floor of the early house had three large rooms. The south-western room may have been separated from the central room by a cross passage running through the building from front to rear. The line of the north screen of the putative passage may be perpetuated by the line of an 18th century wooden cornice with dentils, which contains an unusual kink or change in angle and must reflect a demolished partition. This passage would have linked the door at the rear with the original main entrance, which lay to the south west of the current door in the centre of the front elevation. No evidence survived of the southern screen. North of the passage were originally two rooms. The first probably represents the original ‘hall’, the main room of the house. This room appears to have been unheated, since there is no provision for a chimney. It may originally have contained an open hearth or, alternatively, there may have been a large lateral stack and fireplace in the north wall. Such a stack would have formed an impressive feature on the entrance façade. Unfortunately this wall was entirely rebuilt when the building was altered in the late 17th century and no evidence of a stack now remains. A stair case leading to the first floor was located within a rectangular stair tower or turret of cob, containing a semi-circular stair in the south-eastern wall. This had been partly cut back and re-built in brick on the ground floor to allow for the insertion of the rear extension.
The partition defining the hall to the north rises to first-floor level and was composed of a timber plank-and-muntin screen of which the head-beam survived, featuring masons mitres betraying the position of large, chamfered muntins. The northern room was large and may have served as high-status accommodation within the early building. Following the late 17th century, when the building was extensively re-built and extended with the addition of a new service wing, this room was turned into a formal dining room.
A large brick recess with a curved hood, built into the earlier cob fabric of the south-eastern wall. This was still partly plastered and it is possible that this was the location of a tall 18th or 19th century sideboard or china cupboard, of which nothing else now remains. This was complemented by wooden raised and fielded panelling and decorated wallpaper. The door leading to room G06, in the 19th-century extension to the north east, had 19th-century wooden panelling identical to the six-panelled door.
The south-western room would have functioned as a service area, heated by a large Heavitree fireplace in the south gable wall. This would originally have had a large timber lintel supported by the surviving monolithic Heavitree jambs concealed within the cob and plaster, although this was replaced with a brick lintel in the 19th century. The large opening was successively reduced in size between the 17th-19th centuries before being finally blocked-up during the modern period (Pl. 8). A small doorway in the south-eastern wall, on the line of the putative cross passage, leads to room G02. Only the gable ends and rear wall retain original cob fabric; the central part of the main façade had been rebuilt in brick in the late 17th century; however, at a low level, the remains of truncated Heavitree rubble walling can be seen beneath the 17th-century brickwork. This almost certainly represents the remains of the stone footings, on which the earlier cob wall of the house was raised. The position of the windows lighting the original building was not identified, and the symmetry of the late 17th-century façade was lost with the removal of the two westernmost windows when a new porch was built in the early 20th century. The current ground floor dining hall is lit by four side-hung wooden casement windows with window seats and internal folding shutters in the main elevation. These contain late 17th or early 18th century H- and butterfly hinges, while the main leaves of the shutters are panelled on the outer face to form a panelled surround to the windows when folded away, complementing the wooden dado panelling of similar date. A single ‘six-over-six’ sash window is located in the south- western wall, adjacent to the fireplace.
The large extension at the rear of the main range belongs largely to the late-17th century expansion of the property. The remains of roughly coursed Heavitree rubble underneath later brick work can be seen in the western elevation and the main entrance arrangement. This is likely to represent an earlier property boundary which was incorporated into the 17th-century building. A small door leads from the south-east elevation into a narrow corridor (G03). This gives access to three rooms on the ground floor, with a staircase at the south-western end of the corridor providing access to the upper floors. The two small rooms (G04 and G05) to the left of the entrance were probably originally a single room, but had been divided by modern stud partitions. Room G05 contained a small, late 17th-century brick fireplace in the southern corner of the wing. This had been blocked in the 20th century. Originally lit by two windows, Room G04 was now lit by a single 20th-century uPVC window while the window in Room G05 had been knocked through in the mid-19th century to provide access to a small outshot added within the angle of the courtyard wall. A large room (G02) was located immediately to the north of the corridor. This was the main kitchen within the new service wing and contained a large, 17th-century brick fireplace in the south-west elevation. The original oak lintel had been removed in the 19th century and replaced with a brick arch, and the fireplace was finally blocked in the 20th century. The room was lit by a single modern window in the south-west wall and a large, modern window in the north-east elevation. A doorway with simple 19th-century wooden panelling provided access to room G01, while a modern arrangement has replaced the 19th century door which would have provided access to a service corridor (G08) along the south-east side of the main house.
Although the small extension to the east of the main range was initially thought to be a single phase 19th-century brick extension, the thickness of the south-eastern, central and north-eastern gable walls would suggest that elements of an earlier cob building survive. The 1842 tithe map shows a narrow building in this position, and it is probable that this was partly re-built during the mid-19th century when a brick wall was built in line with the front of the main building.
Much of the early fabric of the building survived on the first floor. The south-west, south-east and north-east walls were all built of cob. The first floor would originally have been reached by a semi-circular stair in a tower or turret located in the south-east elevation; the present treads are a later alteration; arrangements for an earlier flight of stairs were identified in the form of chases cut in the cob of the southern and eastern elevations. These were set 0.2m higher than the current stairs, suggesting that the level of the first floor was originally slightly higher. The present staircase, though altered, respects the existing floor level and is probably of late 17th- or early 18th-century date.
The staircase opened onto a landing (F01) which would have provided access to three relatively large rooms (F04/5, F06 and F07), reflecting the layout of the ground-floor rooms below. A small room (F02) was located immediately to the northeast of the stair. The south side of the doorway leading to this room from the landing contained wooden panelling, suggesting that room F02 may be part of an 18th- or 19th- century addition to the main building. The room was lit by a single late 19th-century casement window and may have served as a water closet or a closet for a close stool.
At the south-west end of the corridor room F07 provided a small glimpse of the house prior to the late 17th-century re-building. The stripping of plasterwork in the south wall exposed redundant cruck chases now infilled with brick. These were the locations of cruck posts supporting the original roof, which were buried in the cob walls of the house. The cob walls retained a layer of ‘beam ’filling’ (a cob lift or layer), part of the original structure. The beam filling had been surmounted by a timber plank and the height of the wall above this further extended with brick. This alteration raised the eaves level and allowed for the heightening of the first floor rooms and the insertion of a new roof and second floor in the late 17th century.
The room also contained a large sgraffito-decorated fireplace in the south-western wall, part of the primary construction of the building. The design represented on the jambs is a common pattern found at Chains Road, Sampford Peverell and, in combination with other designs, at Gotham, Tiverton; while the other design, surviving on the rear face – false ashlar – has been previously identified at Nos 44-6 Magdalen Street, Exeter (Adam forthcoming). The Mount Wear House example is likely to belong to the period between 1660 and 1690.
The partition between rooms F07 and F06 was composed of squared timber and diagonal bracing (Fig. 14), typically found in local buildings in the mid to late 17th century.
The first floor of the rear wing is approached by a dog-leg stair with closed string, turned balusters and plain ball finials, located at the rear of the building and contemporary with the 17th-century extension. Room F11 contained a small, late 17th-century arched brick fireplace with a curved back, built into the angle of the eastern corner (Pl. 14). Fireplaces of this type are often found in properties of similar date in Topsham. The room was lit by a single late 17th-/early 18th century mullioned and transomed or mullion-and-cross window, the leaded lights of which had been replaced with wooden casements in the 19th century. A second mullion-and-cross window adjacent to this had been blocked in the modern period. Two further identical mullion-and-cross windows were located in the south-eastern wall of F12. A door in the north-western wall connecting the extension with the main house was probably inserted in the late 19th century; it seem likely that the rooms in the rear wing were originally independent of the accommodation in the main range.
The attic floor was accessed from the main house via a dog-leg stair with a closed string, turned balusters and plain ball finials leading up from the ground-floor (Pl. 16). This stair is contemporary with the expansion of the house and the construction of the service wing in the late 17th century. A second identical stair, led up from the service extension at the rear. From these access was gained to six rooms.
A small room (S03) in the middle was defined by a late 17th century partition along its northern side (Fig. 15). This consisted of re-used floor joists and roof timbers from the earlier building. The remainder of the partitions were removed in the 20th century during the tenure of the Youth Hostel Association.
The second floor of the 17th-century rear extension was accessed from a staircase leading up from the ground floor.
The roof is a single phase dating to the late 17th century. It is supported on nine A-frames with collar beams and pegged halved-jointed apices, and extended over both the main house and the rear extension.

English Heritage, 2015, National Heritage List for England (National Heritage List for England). SDV357602.

Mount Wear House, 47 Countess Wear Road. L-shaped late C17 brick house with plaster and stucco finish. Principal garden front is 2 storeys, 7 windows, with gabled dormers above. This part of the house appears to have been altered C18 and later. All modern casement windows. Modillion cornice, altered slate roof. Some 2 inch bricks are visible under plaster. Interior: Hall has early C18 panelling, staircase and cornice.

Adams, A., 2015, Sgraffito-Decorated and Painted Plaster on Devon Fireplaces, 185 (Article in Monograph). SDV365384.

In 2013 a fireplace with black-and-white sgraffito decoration was recorded by Oakford Archaeology during building work at Mount Wear House. The first=floor fireplace in the south gable displayed fragmentary false ashlar on the rear face and diagonally quartered near-squares on the internal faces of the jambs under an oak lintel with a simple chamfer and moulding. The design represented on the jambs is a common pattern, also found at Chains Road, Sampford Peverell and at Gotham, Tiverton (MDV24571). This example is likely to belong to the period circa 1660-1690, prior to the construction of the rear range in the late 17th-century.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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