Description

SX86SE
1947-1/2/166
10/01/75

PAIGNTON

LOWER BLAGDON LANE, Blagdon
(North side)
Lower Blagdon House
(Formerly Listed as:
LOWER BLAGDON LANE, Blagdon
Walnut Cottage)

GV
II

Gentry house. Early C18, probably with an earlier core.
MATERIALS: Part stone rubble, part cob, cement-rendered and
blocked out; slate roof; stacks with rendered shafts. Some of
the service blocks are partly brick, one with a timber-framed,
slate-hung first floor.
PLAN: Slightly set back from the road. Principal rooms in
L-plan range with subsidiary buildings round rear service
yard. Main block 2 rooms wide faces S onto a garden, right end
(E) stack and rear left lateral stack. Service/entrance wing
at right-angles to rear with passage entrance into stair hall
and N end stack to kitchen. Servants'/children's accommodation
in the attic rooms with unusual arrangement of service stairs
back to back with main stair.
Service yard to NE with laundry block to S with fireplace back
to back with E end stack of main range. Service rooms
adjoining kitchen include larder and pound-house, the latter
with access from the field to the N for dropping apples down.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and attic, with part cellar. Asymmetrical
2:1-window front with the end of the main range with a hipped
roof to the left. Rusticated cement-rendered quoins; deep
boxed eaves. 6-panel early C19 front door into left-hand block
with overlight with ornamental glazing bars and a C20 timber
open porch on posts. 12-pane C19 sash to left of door, 2
first-floor probably C20 2 over 4-pane top-hung windows. C18
hipped roof dormer glazed with a 2-light timber casement with
glazing bars. The end of the main range has one 4 over 4-pane
sash to the ground floor with vertical glazing bars and a
plank door to the cellar.
To the left, set back, a single-storey block with a hipped
roof contains a fine, wide, early C18 2-panel door with
moulded panels and draw bar to the service rooms.
3-bay right return (garden elevation), roof hipped at ends.
Tall central 12-pane sash, flanked by probably early C19
French windows with margin panes and overlights with
ornamental glazing bars matching the front door. 3 first-floor
probably C18 12-pane sashes, the left-hand 2 with opening
panes. 2 hipped roof dormers with 3 over 6-pane sashes.
Verandah on plain timber posts. Laundry block to right has one
2-pane sash.
Rear elevation of the main block has a panelled back door and
sash windows. On the N side, from the field to the N, the
pound house has a long catslide roof.
INTERIOR: Very unaltered. Fine series of moulded 2-panel early
C18 doors including the attic storey. Early C19 stick baluster
stair with mahogany handrail. Chimney-pieces, mostly timber,
some dating from the early C18. The attic rooms are plastered
out with peep-holes from 2 of the bedrooms onto the landing.
Flag floors to kitchen and larder; massive, partly blocked
fireplace in the kitchen. Laundry has open fireplace with
chamfered step-stopped timber lintel and C19 copper. Service
yard paved with local stone. Pound house retains beam for
press, press removed.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES: An unusually complete small gentry house
with good quality detail and well-preserved service buildings.
The present owner is a descendent of the Mudge family,
recorded as occupants of Blagdon in 1567.
(Transactions of the Devonshire Association, Vol 64: Couldrey
WG: Memories and Antiquities of Paignton: 1932-: 234).

Listing NGR: SX8597360828

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26585744

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

• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)