Roads & Properties

No 79

Somer House, Drinking Fountain

1844 Tythe No 1591 owned by Robert Bath Senr

Mid to late C19. 2 storeys. Ashlar front with section coming forward on right. Moulded cornice and parapet. Pantile roof, hipped to right-hand. Plain corner pilasters. Stringcourse. Plinth. 3 windows with moulded architrave surrounds. The windows in right-hand section have cornices on curved brackets. Sashes, close-set glazing bars. French window to balcony over porch. Entablature and openwork parapets supported by 2 columns and 2 pilasters with crocket capitals. Niche with semi-circular head and curved arm-rests inside porch. 4-panel door. Low wall along street in front of paved forecourt. To each end of wall are pairs of gatepiers with incised panels and pyramidal tops. Walls run back from gatepiers to join sides of the house.

Late C19. Neo-Romanesque. Ashlar with polished red marble columns. Triangular gablet over blind round-headed arch of 2 orders with chevron enrichment. Outer order is supported by 2 marble columns with ashlar capitals, annulets and bases. The 3 exposed faces of capital have lively carvings of hunting animals, dragons etc. The well inside the arch consists of a fluted marble basin in form of a Romanesque piscina, niche above contains brass outlet pipe. In Apex of gablet is carved fishscale detail, a hand pointing to the right, and 'To the Tor' in a kind of Gothic script.