Poslingford House

Poslingford House

Country house built circa 1820 by Colonel Thomas Weston on the site of an earlier manor house. The house was extensively restored between 1963 and 1969 following a fire in 1963, and again in the mid-late 1970s after a second fire in 1975.

The house is constructed of stuccoed brick, scored to imitate ashlar, with twentieth-century asbestos slate roofs and twentieth-century brick stacks.

The two-storey building is rectangular in plan with a north to south alignment. The main range occupies the south end with a smaller five-bay wing flanking it to the north, and a small service wing beyond that. The house is of restrained neo-classical style, with its principal elevation facing east across a large lawn.

The main range features a shallow plinth, stuccoed plat band and moulded and stuccoed sill course. A flat-roofed portico projects from the centre bay, distyle in antis, with Greek fluted Doric columns. The portico's returns retain their original triglyph friezes while the plain entablature, moulded wooden cornice and bituminous felt roof are twentieth-century replacements. The half-glazed entrance doors are believed to be original. Flanking the portico are two six-over-three pane sashes carried down to floor level. The first floor has five six-over-six pane sashes, the central window having a moulded surround. The hipped roof is a twentieth-century replacement with oversailing eaves and small gables to the return centre bays. A twentieth-century replica of the original glazed circular cupola surmounts the roof. Due to the extensive restoration work following the two fires, all windows are replacement timber-framed double-hung sashes with plain reveals and stuccoed lintels unless otherwise stated.

The left-hand return of the main range has three bays with a small gable to the centre bay fitted with twentieth-century plain barge boards. The ground floor has a six-over-three pane sash carried down to floor level at the right-hand side and a blocked window opening to the centre. A late-twentieth-century lean-to glasshouse projects from the right-hand side, with the former window opening now converted to a doorway. The first floor has a six-over-six pane sash to both the right-hand and centre bays, with a blocked window opening to the left-hand bay.

The rear of the main range has a single-storey bowed central bay with three six-over-three pane sashes carried down to floor level, its flat roof hidden behind a parapet with a moulded string course. Identical sashes flank this on each side. The first-floor centre has two three-light casements inserted in the 1960s to replace fire-damaged sashes, flanked on each side by single six-over-six pane sashes.

The smaller five-bay north wing is set back to the right of the main range with a lower ridge line. Its ground floor has four two-over-two pane sashes from left to right, the fifth bay having a projecting porch with a sloping roof and blocked window opening, accessed from a small service courtyard on its north side. The first floor has five two-over-two pane sashes. The right-hand return, forming the courtyard's southern boundary, is of twentieth-century English bond brick. The ground floor has a round-headed doorway to the right-hand side and a two-paned casement with cambered head to the left, both with concrete lintels. The first floor has a two-over-two pane sash with cambered head. The hipped roof with oversailing eaves is a twentieth-century replacement.

The service wing is set back to the right of the north wing, forming the western boundary of the courtyard. Its ground floor is of stuccoed brick with a round-headed doorway to the right and a two-over-one pane sash with cambered head and stone lintel to the left. The first floor is of twentieth-century English bond brick with a three-over-three pane sash with cambered head and concrete lintel to the centre. The hipped roof is believed to be original though re-covered in the late twentieth century with asbestos slate.

A late-twentieth-century double garage projects from the right-hand end of the service wing, forming the courtyard's northern boundary. It is stucco rendered with planked doors set beneath a gabled roof of corrugated asbestos.

A screen wall of stuccoed brick runs from the north side of the north wing to the south side of the garage, with a central gateway set between plain pilasters forming the east side of the courtyard.

The rear elevation of the north wing has a late-twentieth-century porch and three two-over-two pane sashes to the ground floor. The first floor has three two-over-two pane sashes, a blocked window opening and a small square casement window.

The rear of the service wing has a Flemish bond brick ground floor with a two-light casement on the left-hand side and two blocked window openings to the right. Its first floor is of stuccoed brick with four two-over-two pane sashes and a small square casement window, the two floors divided by a stuccoed plat band.

The interior of the main range was completely gutted and rebuilt between 1963 and 1969. It retains no original fixtures and fittings. The lounge, library, oval room and pool room have been similarly restored, with their principal decorative features being cedar panelled window reveals and papier-mâché moulded ceilings and cornices. The lounge contains a nineteenth-century classical-style fireplace from Moulton Paddocks, while the woodwork to the doorway between the Oval Room and Pool Room was initially installed in Herringswell Manor. In the attic, the truncated stacks from the original house remain visible.

The interior of the north wing lost the majority of its original fixtures and fittings after damage by fire in 1975. Surviving features include a large six-panelled door to the entrance corridor at the north end and a small number of six-panelled doors with twentieth-century hardboard facings to the individual rooms. In the attic, the scorched outline of the original M-shaped roof is visible on the party wall with the main range, and a small fragment of the original roof with shallower pitch survives in the attic's north-west corner. The service wing retains six-panelled doors to the first-floor rooms.

Under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, it is declared that the two late-twentieth-century three-light casement windows on the first floor of the rear elevation and the rebuilt late-twentieth-century interiors are not of special architectural or historic interest.