Faringdon House

Faringdon House is a formal country house dating from approximately 1770 to 1785, built for H J Pye, the Poet Laureate. It is constructed of ashlar and render, with a double pile plan. The house is two storeys and an attic, with a basement sunk into the south front, and open at the north. The roof is hipped and covered with stone tiles, featuring ashlar end wall stacks and two small dormers to the south, with three to the north.

The building has a five-window front, with glazing bar sashes. The south front breaks forward centrally with a pediment, while the north front is more even. Stone mouldings define the cornice and balustrade that runs around the roofline. Ball finials are positioned on panelled piers at the corners, with breaks in the balustrade to accommodate the dormers and central pediment. Moulded stone architraves surround the windows. The south front features an ashlar basement up to the ground floor sill course. Rusticated ashlar detailing is present at the centre, flanked by two round-headed niches containing statues, leading to a central arched doorway. A plain band runs across the facade. The doorway itself has a moulded arch and pilaster sides, with a projecting, later stone porch featuring Tuscan columns and half-column responds. Roundels in relief are incorporated into the frieze. The first floor is treated as a shallow recessed giant arch, breaking into a pediment above. The first-floor window has a moulded surround with a pulvinated frieze and cornice, with the surround swept out at its base to a wide apron. An arched head attic window sits above. A stone balustrade runs in front of the basement.

The north front has pediments over the centre and outer ground floor windows, along with a wider architrave framing the central window. The basement floor is at ground level, featuring a projecting arcade of five elliptical rusticated arches, supporting a terrace and a fine right-angle staircase with panelled piers and balustrade on each side. Screen walls flank each front. To the south side, a quadrant curve features fine ashlar, broken-pedimented doorways flanking the house. Each quadrant wall contains five niches. Terminal gateways are marked by ashlar rusticated piers with wide corniced caps and paired ball finials, although one finial is missing. The north side screen walls are straight and rendered, with ashlar details and three niches in recessed arches featuring dentil cornices. Plain coped walls connect these. Low service wings are situated between the screen walls.

On the west side is a one-storey section with a north-south wall incorporating three coped gables and stone mullion and transom windows, reputedly from a previous 16th-century house. On the east side is a two-storey 19th-century service block, with a small early 20th-century former chapel projecting. This chapel has two traceried windows.

The interior of the house is outstanding, featuring a two-storey entrance hall with an elegant plan and a staircase returning from a half-landing over the entrance in a single flight, spanning the centre of the hall. Notable features include fine plasterwork, fireplaces, and woodwork.