User:Dumelow/Zeals House

Zeals House is a grade I listed building in Wiltshire.

Private Eye 1549 11 June 2021. Nooks and Corners p23: "arare example of a domestic property with a surviving medieval range". Historic England have added it to the buildings-at-risk register. Grade I listed. Built 14th century for the Chafyn family. Altered in 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Near boudnary of Wilshire, Dorset and Somerset next to the Monarch's Way fotpath, the route taken by Charles II from his defeat at the 1651 Battle of Worcester. Charles is reported to have stopped at Zeals on his way to France. Nikolaus Pevsner in The Buildings of England described it as offering a "confused picture and needing to be studied properly". Julian Orbach's updated edition of Pevsner's Wilshire guide says the house "took a long time to reveal its secrets". Bought by SKE Holdings Ltd, a British Virgin Islands cregistered company, in 2011. Since then has been left empty except for live-in guardians. House made of limestone rublle with slate roofs and stone chimney stacks. On a "rambling" L-shaped footrpint. The oldest part is a two-storey hall will surviving medieval roof. HE describe the house asd "falling into a state of disrepair". Orback calls it a "scandal". Roof is leaking, timbers are rotting, a chimney stack has cracked and windows are broken. Internal cornices and plasterwork are deteriorating,, original wooden doors have been patched with boards and at least one covered with a coat of gloss paint. The outbuildings are grade II listed and also deteriorating. The granary has collapsed and others are covered in damaging ivy. The Victorian brick-built orangery was partially repaired but left unfinished. A formerly imposing pediment is now a pile of rubble. The grounds have been trespassed upon. Wiltshire COuncil has attempted to enageg with the owners without much luck. They failed to respond to enquiries made by Private Eye in 2021. Wilshire could pusue a compulsory purchase order on the property.

Later Chafyn-Grove family. Grounds extend to 58 acres. Was for sale, asking price £4m. Now Sold STC. Reamins on Heritage at Risk register owing to a cracked stone chimney stack, rotting timber, failing cornices and paster and a broken window. Internal doors have rotted and been patched with boards. Outbuildings include a collapsed granary and a broken Victorian orangery, repairs have been attempted but are incomplete or of poor quality. Repairs have been made to the roof but Wiltshire COuncil were not consulted on it. A council enforcement notice is in place and planning permission granted for repairs to the orangery but work has yet to commence. On the market for more than a year, original price was £6m.