Pradoe including attached service ranges and outbuildings

Pradoe including attached service ranges and outbuildings

A small country house built in 1785 by John Dovaston for Reverend Pritchard, substantially extended between 1810 and 1812 by John Carline for Thomas Kenyon, with further alterations by John Hiram Haycock in 1816 and later additions and alterations. The building is constructed of red brick with a hipped slate roof featuring a central open well. A moulded stone eaves cornice continues as a dentilled brick eaves cornice to the right return, with a chamfered brick plinth and cellar.

The principal façade is three storeys tall with five windows. Most windows are glazing bar sashes with gauged heads, except for the centre windows on the first and second floors, which have shouldered and eared architraves with rosette emblems at the corners and to the cill brackets of the first-floor window. The central entrance has mid-19th-century half-glazed double doors with stained glass borders. Two windows to the left have been infilled.

A single-storey hip-roofed addition to the right, built by Carline, contains two tall 15-paned glazing bar sashes with plain stone wedge lintels. The left return features a full-height canted bay to the centre with glazing bar sashes with gauged heads and a French window with gauged head. A further single-storey addition to the left, also by Carline, has a low-pitched hipped roof concealed by a moulded stone eaves cornice and three tall fifteen-paned glazing bar sashes with plain stone wedge lintels.

The main range has ridge, valley, integral and end stacks, most of which were rebuilt in mid-19th-century yellow brick. Late 18th-century and 19th-century service ranges stand to the rear in mixed red brick and sandstone block construction with slate roofs, some hipped. These ranges are two storeys tall with toothed eaves cornices and feature a combination of glazing bar sashes and 19th-century casements, along with ridge and end stacks.

A single-storey sandstone block projection at the rear on the left has a hipped graded slate roof and toothed eaves cornice and houses a game larder. A two-light stone mullion window lighting the cellar to the rear of the right return of the main block may form part of an earlier house.

The interior contains an open-well stone staircase by John Carline, constructed between 1803 and 1805, with decorated cast-iron balusters, an open string and an inlaid wreathed and ramped handrail. Two sandstone fluted Doric columns with antae stand in what was formerly a dining room, now a library, also probably by Carline. This room features inset 19th-century bookcases with canvas maps that can be rolled down in front of them, and a concealed door leads through to a dining room extension. The drawing room extension contains a monument to Henry, son of Thomas Kenyon, by Thomas Carline, a plaster copy of which is located in Pradoe Church. Throughout the house are 18th-century cast-iron fireplaces, plaster cornices (some with egg and dart or other moulding), panelled doors (some with decorated surrounds) and panelled window shutters.

The service ranges retain an unusually large amount of late 18th-century and 19th-century features and furnishings, including bread ovens, cast-iron sinks and cooking ranges, larders and shelves. Two former kitchens survive, including one in the basement. The game larder contains slate shelves and a sink, and sandstone-walled cellars remain beneath the main structure.

The house is set within fine parkland landscape. The building history of the house and its associated estate buildings is exceptionally well documented.