Description

KENTON
SX 98 SW

5/286 Oxton House

11.11.52

GV II

Small country house, divided into flats. 1781-91 by the Reverend John Swete with
alteration of circa 1830 in the Greek Revival style. Late C20 alterations associated
with the division of the house into flats. Rendered, with a slate roof behind a
parapet; stacks with rendered shafts with moulded cornices.
Plan: Deep rectangular plan, 3 rooms wide with a central entrance into a heated hall
with flanking principal rooms. Stair hall to rear right, off the entrance hall,
service rooms to rear left.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Symmetrical front (east) elevation with 2 storey canted bays to
left and right (3 windows to each) and 3 windows to the centre with a 5-bay Greek
portico with fluted Doric columns with a triglyph frieze. C19 panelled 2-leaf front
door with deep reveals flanked by 12-pane C18 or C19 sash windows; other windows
identical sashes. The left return, which formerly had a second Greek portico
overlooking the garden, also has sash windows and 2 later battlemented ground floor
bays. C18 or C19 sashes to the right return which has one C20 ground floor and one
first floor French window. The former stable block at the right has round-headed
recesses and the remains of a pediment above a dentil frieze in the east end.
Interior: Not thoroughly inspected, but the principal rooms retain plaster cornices,
marble chimney-pieces (ground floor right has a late C19 marble chimney-piece)
shutters, panelled doors and deep skirting boards, although there are a number of
late C20 Georgian style doors and cornices. Fine open well stair and stair
balustrade with ornamental iron balusters and a wreathed handrail; a pair of Ionic
columns in the stair hall are of uncertain date.
The Reverend Swete describes his ten year programme of building Oxton House in his
'Picturesque Sketches of Devon' in MS in the D.R.O., including watercolours of the
house before the Greek Revival alterations.

Listing NGR: SX9287682600

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26389939

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

• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)