More information : (SY 68928808) Herringston [NR]
(SY 68908811) Chapel [NR] (Site of) [NAT] (1)
Herringston. (689881), of two storeys and attics has stone walls
rendered in cement and roofs covered with slates. Walterus
Heryng de Winterborne was granted a licence to crenellate his
manor house in 1336 and the main structure of the present house
is probably of this date though much altered: there are now no
features visible that can be ascribed to a date earlier than the
16th century. The house was built round a courtyard of which the
N. range and the N. parts of the E and W ranges were taken down
at the beginning of the 19th century. A least of 1441, quoted
in a MS of 1820 (at Herringston), refers to a Gatehouse, and
the MS. also states that the N. range contained a large
semicircular gateway over which was the date 1582. In 1513 the
manor was acquired by John Williams, and Coker records that his
grandson, Sir John Williams, who succeeded to the estate in
1569, 'by his building and other ornaments much beautified'
the house; it is probable that he remodelled or partly rebuilt
the house of Walter Heryng, increasing the width of the S range,
and the plan has been so hatched, though the extent to which the
walls of Walter Heryng's house survive is conjectural. Sir John
formed the Great Chamber on the first floor, partly out of the
original hall and partly out of a new extension S. of the
original building; the plasterwork of the Chamber can be dated
to 1616-1625 by the initials C.P. which accompany the Prince
of Wales's feathers, but Sir John died in 1617 and an unfinished
pilaster on the S. wall suggests that his death put an abrupt end
to the embellishment of the Chamber.
At the beginning of the 19th century further remodelling was
carried out to the designs of Thomas Leverton (letters at
Herringston). The buildings round the N. part of the courtyard,
including a chapel were pulled down and the space between the
curtailed E and W ranges was filled in with the present
entrance hall, dining room and library. The hall and the W.
range were heightened and covered with a new lower-pitched roof
without attics. Later in the 19th century a porch was added to
the N. front; in 1899 a substantial new wing was added on the
E side of the house, and a conservatory and outbuildings have
been added to the W.
The decorated plaster ceiling and the carved panelling in the
Great Chamber are remarkable. (2)
Herringston House, 16th Century and early 19th century. (3)
Herringston (name confirmed) remains as described by RCHM (Auth 2)
and is in a very good state of preservation. There are no
visible remains of the chapel, the site of which lies to
the north of the present house. (see ground photographs) (4)
Herringston House. Grade II*. (5,6)
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