| Summary: | Orleigh Court. Held by family of Dacus or Dennis. Of the Dennis house the only remaining part is the lofty entrance hall with its oak timbered roof and massive door studded and barred with oak the porch and small chamber over it. Originally a newel staircase leading from the porch up to the gallery at the west end of the hall. Gallery gone and the staircase built up; licence for an oratory granted march 1416 by Bishop Stafford. May have been the small chamber over the porch with its barrel vaulting. Hall was originally panelled with oak, representing scriptual figures; became infected with dry rot; the panelling now filling the east end of the hall was discovered in a loft over the stables. Bold pattern with fine scallop shell ornament, similar to west screen in church of Walpole St. Peter in Norfolk (1570-80). Royal arms of Edward vi were over the panelling. The Davies who remodelled the house in 1721, broke out of the big mullioned window with the Davie arms in colour. They built the beechwood balustrade of the principal staircase (the oak staircase at the end of the hall at an earlier date). There were originally farm buildings at the back of the house, these have been removed. |
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