Description

SX 38 SE LIFTON

5/118 Lifton Park
-
II

House and ruins to the east. Circa 1815 for William Arundell of Kenegie in Cornwall
who inherited the Lifton estate in 1775. Alterations of 1857 for Henry Bradshaw who
acquired the estate in 1844. Stuccoed stone with some stone dressings, and slate
roofs with rendered stacks. An extensive Gothick house of 1815 partly remodelled in
a more archaeological but still Gothick style in 1857. The west block survives but
to the east the house is ruinous. The original build seems to have had a west
entrance and a sequence of principal rooms facing south and opening into one another,
the now ruinous central room, said to have been an orangery on the south side being
single-storey with 3 tall arched Gothick windows with timber tracery between the
slightly advanced blocks to the west and east. The exterior alterations of 1857 seem
to have been confined to the entrance front at the west which was refenestrated with
stone traceried windows and given a battlemented parapet and stepped and Dutch
gables. In the circa 1950s the east part of the house became ruinous, renovations in
progress on the west block at the time of survey, 1985.
The west block 1815 with alterations of 1857 (dated rain water head). Stone
stuccoed and blocked out and rusticated with various unarchaeological designs. Slate
roof with stepped gables at ends. Rendered stacks with moulded caps and tall
ornamental chimney pots. Double depth plan with rooms leading directly off a large
entrance hall. 2 storeys. 8 bay symmetrical front with central embattled porte-
cochere with flying diagonal buttresses to the front and double chamfered arches
carried on short shafts. Front left and right projections have Dutch gables to the
front crowned with crosses and slender setback buttresses with set-offs. The
battlemented parapet to the central 5 bays rises as a stepped gable, crowned with a
cross above the middle bay. Stone Perpendicular style stone traceried windows
throughout, 1-, 2- and 3-light with cusping in the heads of the main lights. Tall
arched doorway with 2-leaf door to main entrance. Adjoining at the north of the
entrance front is 1 bay which preserves the 1815 detail. A single-storey embattled
projection has a 2-light Gothick arched timber traceried casement in a rectangular
architrave. The south side of the west block has 2 stepped gables to the south and 1
to the east but preserves its 1815 fenestration of 2-light timber traceried casements
in rectangular architraves, the ground floor windows being French windows.
Interior Plaster vault to porch, presumably of 1815. Most of the joinery and
cornices also date from 1815 including large 2-leaf doors with Gothick panelling.
Fine hall fireplace surround has moulded stone pinnacles, 1 finial missing, and a
cast iron fireplace corbelled out on Gothic heads. The principal staircase is dog-
leg and supported on iron columns with stone stairs and paired cast iron balusters.
A second timber stair has balusters with Gothick detailing and a trail of foliage
carved on the newel post.
The east block 1815. Stuccoed stone with vermiculated rustication, rendered stacks
with moulded caps. Roofless and forming a picturesque ruin to the east of the house.
The remains of the central 3-bay room on the south side has an embattled parapet and
tall arched Gothick windows with timber tracery and buttresses with set-offs between.
To the east of this the plan seems to have been an irregular picturesque block with
canted bays and 2-light Gothick arched timber traceried casements in rectangular
architraves.
William Arundell is said to have rebuilt an earlier house on the site, but there is
no sign of a pre 1815 core.
John B. Wollocombe, From Morn till Eve (1908).

Listing NGR: SX3808284562

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26457684

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

• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)