Torbay Council

Listed building outline: Lower Blagdon House 383814

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• Listed building outlines

Lower Blagdon House 383814

• geometry: MULTIPOLYGON (((-3.606955 50.436321,-3.606992 50.436320,-3.606988...
• entry-date: 1975-01-10
• listed-building: 1298229
• name: Lower Blagdon House
• notes: 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: SX8595460854
• reference: 383814
• start-date: 1975-01-10