West Ord

ORD WEST ORD NT 95 SE 2/113 West Ord 22.12.69 II*

House. c.1700-1710. Painted ashlar with Scottish slate roof. A symmetrical rectangular house with each pair of opposing facades identical. 2 storeys plus attics, 5 by 2 bays. Chamfered plinth and broad angle pilasters. Central panelled door with overlight, in raised stone surround. Tall, narrow windows with raised stone surrounds, now with C20 plate-glass casements. Bold cornice continuous round the house. Tall plain parapet. Very tall, steeply-pitched near- pyramidal roof with 2 large square ridge stacks and 3 original hipped dormers with 2-light casements.

Interior: Drawing room has panels in eared architraves, C20 fireplace flanked by original full-height Ionic pilasters, wood modillion cornice, two 8-panel doors and a round-headed 12-panel door in keyed architrave.

Staircase: Panelled dado. Boldly-moulded wreathed handrail, turned balusters, moulded tread ends. Two keyed, panelled arches on ground floor and 3 on 1st floor.

Large panelled room on 1st floor, now subdivided into 2 bedrooms. It has 2 round-headed 10-panel doors in panelled reveals with fluted pilasters and keyed archivolts. Fireplace with bolection-moulded surround and full-height Corinthian pilasters. Extremely fine cornice with enriched modillions, egg- and-dart, and finely-detailed oak leaves and other foliage between the modillions. Round-headed niche with enriched moulded surround and shaped shelves.

Also on the 1st floor a 3rd room with fielded panels and wood cornice.

In the attic four 2-panel doors. Original large oak principals dying into the wall face, with one row of trenched purlins.

The house belonged to the Orde Family but its quality may be related to the fact that Margaret Orde was the mistress of Sir William Blackett of Wallington, and that her illegitimate daughter, also called Margaret, became Sir William's heir. The house was probably built before Margaret Orde senior's death in 1712. The interior decoration may date from after the house's full reversal to the Wallington estate in 1726.

North Durham: J. Raine: London, 1852. (Geneology of Orde of West Ord).

Listing NGR: NT9544551748