Tidmington House

Tidmington House is a manor house dating back to circa 1600, with significant alterations and additions in the late 17th and mid-18th centuries. The house is constructed of limestone ashlar, squared and coursed limestone rubble, some rendered brick, and brick in Flemish bond. It has moulded coped gables with some finials, stone slate and slate roofs, ashlar ridge details, and tall lateral stacks with moulded bases and connected cornices. The house is two storeys plus an attic, with an 8-window range of central 3-window bays, flanked by projecting gabled bays, forming a U-shaped plan. The facade was refronted around 1765.

The central doorway has a part-glazed door with a semi-circular overlight within a moulded surround embellished with a keyblock. Tuscan columns on bases support a moulded entablature. A large porch with Tuscan columns and pilasters, topped with a moulded entablature, projects forward and is engaged with the gabled bays. Flanking the door within the porch are 12-pane sashes with moulded architraves. A Venetian window sits above the central bay, flanked by 12-pane sashes. A tripartite lunette is set within the central gable, below a plain storey band. The ground and first floors of each projecting bay feature two 12-pane sashes, with a further 12-pane sash in the gable. All windows have moulded architraves. A smaller gabled bay to the right has a large 12-pane sash to the ground floor with moulded and eaved architraves, and a 12-pane sash to the first floor. Tuscan pilasters support an entablature and a part-broken balustrade with ball finials. To the right is a one-storey, single-bay pavilion faced in ashlar with Tuscan pilaster end entablature supporting a balustrade with a ball finial. Behind the facade is a wooden balustrade verandah.

The rear of the house features three gabled bays dating from around 1600, with some 12-pane sashes and a Venetian window, alongside original ovolo-moulded three-light mullioned windows with hood moulds and label stops in the gables. To the rear left is a 19th-century rendered brick bow range of two storeys with sash windows in plain architraves. To the right is an early 18th-century brick range, altered in the later 18th or 19th century, with a glazed and panelled door on the ground floor.

The interior includes a 18th-century stone fireplace in the central hall, with a moulded entablature. There’s also an 18th-century carved turned baluster dog-leg staircase leading to the first floor. The house contains six-panelled doors with eared architraves and features a dentilled cornice. Some doors are decorated with Chinese-style motifs on broken pediments. A further Adam-style fireplace is present, along with a kitchen featuring stone flagged floors, a large open fireplace with a refaced bressumer, a chamfered spine beam, and in the dining room, round-headed niches with keyblocks and another 18th-century fireplace.