Rymans, Appledram

Description

T-shaped house of C15 origin. The original portion of the house was built circa 1410 and comprises a tower of three-storeys and a south wing of two-storeys. Built of ashlar with a tiled roof. The stone rubble east wing was added in the C16-C17. The north wing was added in the early C20 by Walter Godfrey who also extensively remodelled the earlier building. (PastScape)

The tradition is that the builder, having been unable to obtain the royal license to crenellate his mansion, employed the materials he had collected in erecting the detached campanile at Chichester, which, like the manor house of Appledram, bears the name of Ryman's tower, and is certainly constructed of similar stone. Ryman's Tower is a quadrangular structure, measuring about 27 feet by 20 feet, and rising to a height of some 45 feet. "Two square-headed windows, with an intervening string-course, remain on the S. and E. sides, and there are indications of a moat. Adjoining the tower is a portion of a building with similar windows; this has been carried up to half the height of the tower, and also left in an incompleted state"(Arnold). (Elwes)

Rymans, known in 1656 as Appledram Place, takes its name from William Ryman, a prominent lawyer, who acquired the freehold in 1410 and built the house. Of this there remains the three-storied solar wing, with a two-storied wing projecting from its south front, all of stone from the Bembridge and Ventnor quarries and very little altered. To the east of the main block is a two-storied brick wing, containing the former Hall, built in the early 17th century but entirely remodelled in 1913. North of the main block, or 'tower', are domestic offices of the 19th century and later. The ground floor of the 15th-century block has an original doorway, with four-centred head, from the Hall, and another in the south-west angle to a stone newel staircase which runs the whole height of the house. The original main staircase to the Great Chamber on the first floor was in the south-west corner; the present 17th-century staircase was inserted in 1913, when the fire-place was also reconstructed. The room projecting to the south has two of its original windows, that on the east of one light, on the west two, both squareheaded. The south window is modern, replacing one of three or four lights constructed of Dutch bricks early in the 16th century. An outer doorway in the east wall is also original, as is one jamb of the fire-place, and in the south-west corner are remains of a garderobe. The room above this retains its 15th-century windows in all three walls, its fire-place, and garderobe. The roof, now ceiled, retains its two original trusses. On the north this room opens into the Great Chamber, lit by large square-headed windows, each of two trefoiled lights, in the south and west walls. There are remains of the fire-place in the north wall, and in the thick east wall a straight flight of stone stairs leads up to a similar chamber on the second floor. The roof above this is a featureless construction, probably of the 17th century. To the south-east of the house a fine brick cart-shed, of the early 17th century, has been converted into a garage. (VCH 1953)