Description

DARTINGTON

SX7861 - SX7961 BARRACKS HILL, LONGCAUSE
13/111 Longcause House
11.11.52
II

House. Built in 1823 or 1825. Said to have been designed by J Brown of
Exeter. Stuccoed stone rubble, simple spare slate hipped roof with
sprocketted eaves overhanging on paired brackets. Over the centre of the
ridge on hexagonal timber bellcote with a tent-shaped lead or zinc roof
with a ball finial and weather vane. Rendered chimney stacks one on the
right (north east) side and 2 to left of ridge, each with 3 octagonal
shafts with short yellow clay pots.
Plan: Rectangular plan of 3 rooms deep; 2 principal front rooms and a
central entrance hall/passage leading to a stairwell behind the right hand
room and a small office/study behind the left hand room. The central
passage continues to a rear doorway and to either side there is the kitchen
to the right, behind the stair well with its own stairs to the servant's
quarters, and to the left, behind the study, a room which was possibly the
servant's hall.
Exterior: 2 storeys. South east front: symmetrical 3 bays. Large original
12-pane sashes, the ground floor cills almost at ground level. Wide
central doorway with moulded doorframe and hall glazed double doors with
pattern of margin and arched glazing bars and bottom panels; wide portico
with 2 pairs of rendered Doric columns and pilasters supporting an
establishment with a moulded cornice. The south west garden front, left
hand return, is longer and has wider spaced 3 bays of similar sash windows,
but no doorway.
The right hand return, north east side has irregular fenestration, 12-pane
sash on ground and first floor to left of centre and tall central round-
arched stair window with glazing bars radiating at top. C20 garage
adjoining right. The rear, north west, is 3 bays, smaller 12-pane first
floor sash windows, the ground floor with blind segmental fanlights above
and central doorway with moulded doorframe with pilasters and flush-panel
door with rectangular fanlight in blind recess.
Interior: is largely intact and most of its original joinery is preserved
including doors and window shutters etc and most of the original
plasterwork survives. The hall has a five groin vaulted plaster ceiling
leading to the stair well with an open-well stairs with stick balusters and
weathered handrail, open string with shaped tread ends. The stair well and
landing ceilings have modillion cornices and elliptical arches with key-
motif in the intrados. The modillion cornices and elliptical arches with
key-motif in the intrados. The modillion cornices and elliptical arches
with key-motif in the intrados. The front right hand room has moulded
plaster cornice and frieze with Vitruvian scroll and shallow elliptically
arched recess in rear wall. The front left hand has a moulded plaster
cornices with a fish-scale pattern frieze. Moulded plaster ceiling
centrepiece and round-headed niches either side of the fireplace. The
chimney pieces in the front rooms have been replaced. The ground floor
office has plaster cornice with egg and dart pattern. The servant's hall
behind has a simple moulded plaster cornice. The kitchen has a C19 iron
range. The cellars have brick groin vaults and access is from stairs in
the kitchen.
The house is said to have been built on the site of Longcause Barracks, of
1794, on the foundations of the officers' mess.

Listing NGR: SX7918661139

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26402131

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

• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)