THE NORTH WEST WING, INCLUDING BILLIARD OR DINING ROOM
Image: ©Kathryn Chiswell Jones
The design and presentation of this ground floor interior has been described as exceptional and among the best in the region. The 1970s works managed to ‘repair’ the walls without destroying the fine plaster work and joinery of the astragal glazed cupboards. But the longstanding dereliction of this site and careless storage of papers lead to an intense fire from vandalism. The partial isolation of this wing from the rest of the Mansion may have left it more vulnerable but also helped to prevent the fire spreading further.
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Many thanks to Bristol Museums at the M Shed for this 360 degree view.
INTERIOR OF THE BILLIARD OR DINING ROOM
BILLARD OR DINING ROOM
Image: ©Kathryn Chiswell Jones
The ‘early Gothic Revival or Strawberry Hill’ inspired architecture of the interior of the Billiard or Dining room is dominated by the ogee arch displayed in different forms and profiles: the bay windows, wall and ceiling plasterwork, even the stone lancets of the west courtyard windows.
WALL PLASTERWORK
Image: ©Kathryn Chiswell Jones
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CEILING PLASTERWORK
Image: FAM volunteer (2021)
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WINDOW LANCETS
Image: ©Kathryn Chiswell Jones
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WHEN WAS IT BUILT?
Image: ©Kathryn Chiswell Jones
When the wing was built is open to some debate; likewise the interiors. Available maps from late 1700s and early 1800s (?) do not show a building on this site but the dating and unaltered condition of these is unreliable.
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Construction and plastering. Secondary accounts reference dates from 1769 to 1803. All of these may be true but viewed from within the room: the two windows overlooking the west courtyard appear to quite crudely cut through the earlier fine plaster design. This stone window tracery exactly matches that across the courtyard and could be dated to the early 1800s.
BAY WINDOWS
Image: FAM volunteer (2021)
The ogee profile of the bay windows is different to the interior plaster work. Either could be later. Some of the internal walling may have been rebuilt in the 1970s but no record is available. There is a variety of bricks and rubble stone throughout.
GIB DOOR
Image: ©Kathryn Chiswell Jones
A gib door to the false stair tower survives in the SW corner.
OTHER ROOMS IN THE NW WING
SMALL ROOM TO THE REAR OF THE BILLIARD OR DINING ROOM
Image: ©Kathryn Chiswell Jones
A small room to the rear or east is dominated by painted, fluted timber columns with Ionic capitals with once glazed windows to shallow cupboards or a view into the billiard room. Loss and damage has been extensive here.
THE NW WING FIRST FLOOR LANDING
Image: ©Kathryn Chiswell Jones
A glazed roof lantern lights a missing stair in a passageway from the main house. The walls are stripped of plaster. The 1st floor, reached by scaffolding, is furnished with door cases, which may be from the SW Wing or elsewhere.
THE MISSING STAIRS
Image: ©Kathryn Chiswell Jones
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WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS WING?
There is some consensus that a NW wing was built in the latter part of the 1700s and extended NW beyond the medieval core of the house and the enclosing west court wall which is shown in a drawing, possibly from 1695, and later used to illustrate the 1760s estate plan.
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In 1757 John Hugh Smyth and his young 15 year old bride the wealthy heiress, Elizabeth Woolnough, set up home at the mansion. John Hugh’s father Jarrit died in 1783 but is said to have lived out his final days in Bristol and not Ashton Court. By 1769 there appear to be records of building a new wing here.
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John Hugh was man of learning and history and a friend of John Collinson, the vicar of Long Ashton, who wrote The History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset, published in 1792. In it, an engraving by T Bonner, appears to show the whole of the west facing court wall with the medieval central gatehouse still in place. Collinson’s account refers to this and the SE stables as ‘contributing to a very venerable and picturesque building’.
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A new wing may have existed by then, joined to the west court wall like the SW wing stair tower opposite. Another visual clue to how it might have looked in late 1700s comes from Repton’s proposals for the east front with a drawing which removes the SE wing entirely and opens up the inner court to show a detailed east facing view of the ancient west range of buildings. North of this, an east facing gatehouse, flanking wall and ‘octagonal kitchen’ may show a proposed or adjusted version of the existing west front c1802.
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The design of today’s interior appears to be inspired by Strawberry Hill House described as Gothic Revival style, built between 1749 and 1776 by Horace Walpole. An estate plan dated to ‘around 1800s’ shows a void where the NW wing is located but the plan may have been altered, equally Hugh, John Hugh’s nephew and heir after 1802, may have rebuilt bigger as he did to the SE wing.
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However, the south wall windows of the NW wing are clearly part of Hugh’s redesign of the west courtyard created in the 1st decade of the 1800s and after the plaster work of the NW wing was completed. The Paty family may have created or adapted the works.