The house is described by the authoritative Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as ‘an amazing survival’, dates from the early twelfth century and is still occupied. Additions were made in the Elizabethan and Georgian periods and there is a fine garden and a moat. The addition of a pool house in such a sensitive setting had its challenges to be a good neighbour to such a rare medieval survival.
Three of the elevations are scarcely visible from the house and some of the detailing borrows details from the local cottage vernacular. But the fourth elevation overlooking the pool consists of eight tall pivoting oak doors that open the internal space to the pool. The ceiling of this space is similar to the roof of the gallery at Roche Court – an aluminium wing with nose cone. There is clearly a case for contrast, not just an architectural one but also the acute difference between the sybaritic pool life and the enclosed privacy of the medieval manor house.
Architect: Stephen Marshall Architects
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