Description

BIDEFORD

SS4526 NORTHAM ROAD
842-1/5/207 (East side)
24/07/74 Northdown Hall (part of Stella Maris
School)
(Formerly Listed as:
NORTHAM ROAD
Northdown Hall at Stella Maris
Convent)

GV II*

Large house, now part of school. Early C19. Solid rendered
walls. Hipped slate roof. Rendered chimneys.
Double-depth plan, 3 rooms wide, with with rear right service
wing. On upper floor the front range has 4 rooms with a
further room in the rear range to left of the staircase.
2 storeys with cellar; 4-window front facing north-east, the 2
middle windows set in a slight projection. Windows have barred
sashes: 6 over 9 panes in ground storey, 6 over 6 panes above.
Small top entablature with parapet. Matching sashes in
upper-storey window of left gable-wall. Several others in rear
wall, including the back stairs window with 12 over 12 panes.
INTERIOR: well-preserved. Geometrical main stair with scrolled
wrought-iron balusters on both sides. Mahogany handrails,
voluted at the foot and surmounted by short iron
lampstandards. Moulded nosings to treads; carved step-ends.
Compartment has 6-panelled doors with panelled reveals in
reeded architraves. Enriched cornices and ceiling-bands on
both floors, the upper floor with a centre oval decorated with
medallions and having a leaved chandelier boss.
The 3 ground-floor front rooms have panelled shutters and
reeded architraves to the windows. The middle and left-hand
rooms have enriched cornices and ceiling-bands; also leaved
chandelier bosses. Both have good white marble chimneypieces;
that to left has vine tendrils and centre plaque with figures
on the lintel, which is supported by caryatids; that in the
middle has a surround carved with flowers and scrolls. The
right-hand room is plainer, with only a moulded cornice.
Upper-storey rooms have moulded cornices, panelled shutters
and simple marble chimneypieces. Wooden back staircase has
narrow open well, cut strings, thin square balusters, and
handrail ramped up over column-newels.
Charles Kingsley is believed to have written 'Westward Ho!'
while he was tenant of Northdown Hall in 1854-5.
(Rogers WH: Notes on Bideford (typescript): P.77, 78, 80).

Listing NGR: SS4511826980

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17536643

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy