Ford House

Ford House

This is a finely detailed house dating to around 1730, built in red brick with grey sandstone dressings and a slate roof with a double-depth plan. It rises two storeys with an attic over a basement. The front elevation displays a painted moulded stone plinth, painted chamfered quoins, and a painted wooden modillion eaves cornice. The gable ends are parapeted with chamfered stone coping running straight across the valley. Three dormers feature 2-light horizontal-sliding sashes set within triangular-pedimented gables. External brick end stacks with moulded stone offsets and dentil brick caps flank the roof.

The façade is arranged in five bays. The windows are glazing bar sashes with exposed boxes, moulded stone cills, and gauged brick heads with projecting triple keystones. The central feature is a pair of half-glazed doors with raised and fielded bottom panels and margin lights above. These doors have panelled reveals and soffit, with a moulded architrave. Above sits a porch with Tuscan columns and half-columns supporting an entablature with a moulded cornice and lead-covered top.

The rear garden front follows similar architectural principles, with the same plinth, quoins, and cornice detailing. The parapeted gable ends here are topped with urns at their feet. Three pedimented dormers light the upper storey. Five bays are arranged across this elevation; the ground-floor sashes were cut down, probably in the late 18th century. Central doors, again half-glazed with raised and fielded lower panels and margin lights, are set within a stone doorcase. This features an architrave with chamfered rustication and a dropped keystone, flanked by Tuscan pilasters supporting an entablature with a segmental pediment. Five red sandstone steps with sides curving out to curtails lead to these doors. A three-bay gable end projects to the south-west, with a tall stepped plinth running beneath it.

A one-storey early 19th-century former kitchen block adjoins to the north-east. It has a hipped roof and L-shaped footprint, with a tall plinth to the rear and dentil brick eaves cornice. The front features a 3-light segmental-headed wooden casement with a segmental-headed 2-panelled door to its right. The left-hand return front has a 2-light segmental-headed wooden casement surmounted by a dated stone shield bearing "RLB / 1839". A short link to the house contains a door with six flush panels.

The interior retains fairly complete early 18th-century fittings. Ground-floor rooms throughout have 18th-century doors with six raised and fielded panels, lugged architraves, and panelled reveals. The staircase hall lies on the east side of the house, its moulded cornice and fluted ceiling beams marking its importance. An archway to the western part features a doorcase with fluted pilasters, a radial fanlight, and a round arch with moulded architrave and keystone. The two-flight dog-leg staircase with half-landing displays an open string decorated with cut brackets. The balusters, three per tread, comprise one twisted, one turned and one fluted example. Turned and fluted newel posts support a moulded ramped handrail, wreathed to a columnar newel post at the foot. Landing balustrades run on two sides.

The ground-floor south-east room underwent early 19th-century remodelling, gaining a dado rail, plaster cornice and soffit. The ground-floor north-east room preserves tall 18th-century raised and fielded panelling with dado rail and moulded dentil cornice, paired with plain architraves and a 19th-century fireplace. A first-floor archway has a doorcase with fluted piers and a moulded round arch with keystone.

Bedrooms retain varied decorative schemes. One features raised and fielded panelling with dado rail and moulded cornice, combined with a fireplace set within a lugged architrave, a frieze with keystone and cornice. Another contains both 17th and 19th-century panelling, with two doors of three raised and fielded panels hung with L-hinges, lugged architraves bearing a pulvinated frieze and moulded cornice.

Ford House served as the home of the Ambler family until 1793. It stands as a well-preserved example of a small early 18th-century house and forms the centre of a group including a terrace to the east and stables and barn to the north.