DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32037#0085
PARSONAGE HOUSE, GREAT SNORING, NORFOLK.
61
1611, when Sir Ralph Shelton sold the lordship to Thomas Richardson,
sergeant-at-law, and afterwards lord chief justice of the King’s Bench. This
Sir Ralph Shelton was killed at the Tsle of Rh6, in France, a. d. 1628; and
leaving no issue, his family became extinct.
Plate I. — South Front, Window, and Details of Ornaments.
This curious structure being mutilated and altered in different parts, much
of its original design cannot be made out. The elevation represents the
south front, with a turret at the south-east angle; beyond which another line
of front extends towards a second turret. The ruins of one or two other
turrets are said to have been visible within memory, but these are now
entirely obliterated. The two fronts do not stand at a right angle, but
obliquely, as if the building, when complete, had formed a polygon of five
sides; but whether this singular plan was actually executed or not, it is now
impossible to discover. The walls of this house are constructed of brick,
and the ornaments are formed of tiles, very curiously moulded and fitted to
their respective situations. The first and second stories are distinguished
by friezes, somewhat similar to. tliose on the front of Wolterton Manor House
though differently ornamented. The upper parts of the turrets are covered
with tracery of very elegant style; but, unfortunately, they both have lost
their original terminations, so that it cannot be ascertained whether they had
spires, pinnacles, or battlements, on the top. The chimney has been broken
off, and afterwards rebuilt in a plain manner; and the door and lower
windows are blocked up. The windows of the chamber story are remarkably
handsome, though of very moderate dimensions. One of them is shewn at
large in Fig. 2. The jambs and head are ornamented with a hollow moulding,
studded with shells and tuns placed alternately, forming a rebus on the name
of Shelton.
Fig. 3. A portion of the upper frieze is here displayed at large, with a
section of the mouldings. In this frieze, the heads, and the ornaments around
them, partake of Italian taste. The larger portraits only exhibit profiles
of a man and woman, many times repeated. The string-courses, above and
below these heads, are filled with very small and delicate ornaments.*
* The “ antique heads” described by Mr. Blomefield in one of the rooms of Wolterton
Manor House probably were of this description. — See page 54.
61
1611, when Sir Ralph Shelton sold the lordship to Thomas Richardson,
sergeant-at-law, and afterwards lord chief justice of the King’s Bench. This
Sir Ralph Shelton was killed at the Tsle of Rh6, in France, a. d. 1628; and
leaving no issue, his family became extinct.
Plate I. — South Front, Window, and Details of Ornaments.
This curious structure being mutilated and altered in different parts, much
of its original design cannot be made out. The elevation represents the
south front, with a turret at the south-east angle; beyond which another line
of front extends towards a second turret. The ruins of one or two other
turrets are said to have been visible within memory, but these are now
entirely obliterated. The two fronts do not stand at a right angle, but
obliquely, as if the building, when complete, had formed a polygon of five
sides; but whether this singular plan was actually executed or not, it is now
impossible to discover. The walls of this house are constructed of brick,
and the ornaments are formed of tiles, very curiously moulded and fitted to
their respective situations. The first and second stories are distinguished
by friezes, somewhat similar to. tliose on the front of Wolterton Manor House
though differently ornamented. The upper parts of the turrets are covered
with tracery of very elegant style; but, unfortunately, they both have lost
their original terminations, so that it cannot be ascertained whether they had
spires, pinnacles, or battlements, on the top. The chimney has been broken
off, and afterwards rebuilt in a plain manner; and the door and lower
windows are blocked up. The windows of the chamber story are remarkably
handsome, though of very moderate dimensions. One of them is shewn at
large in Fig. 2. The jambs and head are ornamented with a hollow moulding,
studded with shells and tuns placed alternately, forming a rebus on the name
of Shelton.
Fig. 3. A portion of the upper frieze is here displayed at large, with a
section of the mouldings. In this frieze, the heads, and the ornaments around
them, partake of Italian taste. The larger portraits only exhibit profiles
of a man and woman, many times repeated. The string-courses, above and
below these heads, are filled with very small and delicate ornaments.*
* The “ antique heads” described by Mr. Blomefield in one of the rooms of Wolterton
Manor House probably were of this description. — See page 54.