Barford House

Barford House is a large Regency mansion, dating to circa 1820. It is built of stucco and is situated on the east side of Wellesbourne Road. The house has a low-pitched slate roof with a leaded dome featuring a glazed lantern over the central block. The main facade is nine bays wide, consisting of a five-bay central block with a portico treatment, and two-bay flanking wings.

The central portion features four attached giant unfluted Ionic columns, flanked by giant angle Ionic pilasters, which support a large entablature with a dentil cornice. A half-glazed door is centrally placed within a pilastered doorcase with a flat hood supported on consoles. To either side of the door are two late 19th-century sash windows. Above the door and the four ground floor windows are five rectangular recessed panels. The first floor has five early 19th-century sash windows with glazing bars. The flanking wings are each one bay recessed 2 feet behind the central portion.

The wings display a continuous cornice and parapet. On the first floor of each wing is a late 19th-century sash window set within a recessed blocked panel with an enriched lintel. The ground floor of the south wing contains a late 19th-century sash window set in a recessed panel with a pair of attached unfluted Ionic columns. Above this window is a recessed rectangular blank panel. The ground floor of the north wing has a projecting tripartite bay window with late 19th-century sashes, flanked by pilasters supporting an entablature and cornice. There are further side wings of one bay each to the north and south, recessed 5 feet behind the flanking wings of the central portion.

The north wing at the first floor has a late 19th-century sash window, while the south wing has a recessed blank panel. The ground floor of the south wing has two recessed coved niches with two recessed square panels above. The north wing has a late 19th-century timber and glass conservatory with a hipped roof. To the north-east of the house and attached to it is an early 19th-century coach house.

The interior includes a dining room with an oak-boarded floor and parquet surround, an early 19th-century Adamesque grate with a white marble classical surround. The drawing room has an oak-boarded floor with parquet surround and a mid-19th century carved marble fireplace surround in the Louis XV style, with brass mounts. The library contains a Hornton stone fireplace with an ornate carved oak mantlepiece depicting the Last Supper and other scenes, believed to be of French origin. The house was occupied by the Graham family between 1924 and 1950; their son, Alastair Graham, was a friend of Evelyn Waugh, who stayed at Barford House on 21 occasions between 1924 and 1932, and wrote part of Decline and Fall there.