Description

PAIGNTON

SX8961 LOWER POLSHAM ROAD 1947-1/4/57 (North side) 10/01/75 Parkfield including walls to walled garden to north (Formerly Listed as: ESPLANADE ROAD No.38 Parkfield)

GV II

House, including walls to walled garden. Owned by Torbay Borough Council, disused at time of survey. Probably 1820s in origin with c1860s alterations. MATERIALS: Stuccoed and blocked out; roof partly slate, partly clad in corrugated-asbestos. Stacks with rendered shafts with platbands and some old pots. PLAN: Main range approximately double-depth with garden elevation facing S, entrance on W side into passage, stairs rise to rear, service rooms to rear right (NE) with service yard at E end. The eastern block of the main range is probably 1820s, the western either a later addition or a remodelling. EXTERIOR: 2 and 3 storeys with single-storey service rooms at the right end. Asymmetrical 3:1:2-window garden front. Deep eaves. The garden elevation has 2 gables to the front with a garden door in a set-back block between them; secondary lean-to at right end. The right-hand gabled block has left and right pilasters with sunk panels and a panelled verge band. Platbands at first and 2nd-floor levels; stuccoed anthemion motif in gable. 2 ground-floor windows with eared moulded surrounds, glazed with 2-pane sashes. 2 first-floor French windows, with margin panes and stuccoed Tudor style hoodmoulds, open onto fine cast-iron verandah. 2nd-floor window with ogival head and pretty curly ogival hoodmould is glazed with a 16-pane sash with margin panes in the head. Recessed bay in centre has C19 half-glazed garden door with overlight below a 12-pane sash. The left-hand block has platbands at 2nd-floor level and above the lintels of the 2nd-floor windows, giving a pedimented effect to the shallow gable. 3 ground-floor French windows with moulded stuccoed surrounds and cornices. Lean-to block at right end is set-back with roof hipped to front. Segmental-headed Edwardian timber verandah and early C19 six-panel door. The entrance front, to W, has a 2-window elevation. Deep eaves; eaves band; platband at first-floor sill level. Projecting entrance bay in centre has pedimented gable and segmental-headed pilastered outer dooorway with cornice over. Internal porch has tiled floor and 2-leaf late C19 half-glazed front door with reeded doorcase. To the right a shallow projecting stack. To left of front door a C19 shallow gabled conservatory with iron cresting on the ridge and below the gable. French window into conservatory; 12-pane sash to first floor. Single-storey block at left end is probably later C19. The rear elevation includes one ogival-headed window to match that on the front. Local red breccia garden walls to walled garden rear (N) of the house. INTERIOR: Very unaltered since about 1900 and incorporating earlier features. Joinery intact throughout, including doors, skirtings, shutters etc Entrance hall with mosaic floor; modillion plaster cornice to entrance and stair hall on both floors. c1860s stair with turned balusters and a ramped wreathed mahogany handrail. Stair window filled with good quality c1900 stained glass. Principal rooms on first and second floors preserve plaster cornices, skirtings and Italian marble and local polished limestone chimney-pieces, mostly c1860s. Dining room at E end of main range refurbished c1900, panelled with timber moulded cornice and serving hatch from service corridor. Smaller first and 2nd-floor rooms preserve C19 moulded timber chimney-pieces. The principal rooms include a rare series of c1900 light fittings and lampshades. Remarkable survival of service rooms, some with flag floors, with fittings and fixtures, including cupbords, sinks with drainers etc Grained paintwork to most of the service rooms and their fittings. The service rooms open off an axial service passage with a back door to the service yard and include, among others, the housekeeper's room; the kitchen complete with a large cast-iron range stamped TL Harding and Sons, Torquay and c1900 storage cupboards. Pantry and dairy also complete, dairy with slate shelves and slatted cupboard. Other unusual survivals are a first-floor bathroom with a boxed cast-iron bath and a lavatory with an early C20 boarded Shanks cistern with a top-mounted flush. HISTORY: This house was the home of Arthur Hyde Dendy, a Birmingham barrister and entrepreneur and one of the principal developers of C19 Paignton. Dendy designed and supervised the construction of the pier, opened and built hotels and theatres, developed land and, in 1883, provided a cycling track which was said to be the best in the country. The corrugated-asbestos on part of the roof is said to be an exceptionally early use of this material (information from Borough Surveyor). The family at Parkfield are said to have been involved in the manufacture of asbestos sheeting. An exceptional house at time of survey, not for the outstanding quality of its interior features, but for the rarity of its completeness, unaltered since c1900. (White's Directory of Devon: 1878-: 590).

Listing NGR: SX8932961228

External Links

• Wikidata Q26489826

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Recommended Books

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  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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