Stoke House, Clifton Theological College, And Attached Rear Kitchen

Stoke House, now part of Clifton Theological College, is a large house dating back to 1669. It was expanded in the mid-18th century and significantly altered and partly refaced in 1872 by Foster and Wood. The house is built of Pennant rubble with limestone dressings, ashlar end-gable stacks, and a tiled double-pile roof. It retains an early centralised double-depth plan with a central hall. The architectural style is Jacobean, with a later Jacobethan Revival-style refacing.

The house is two storeys and an attic, featuring a five-window front. Notable features include three ogee gables and a full-height central porch. The porch has a fine late 17th-century ashlar doorcase with helical columns supporting naive Corinthian capitals, a segmental pediment over an elliptical doorway, a heraldic cartouche flanked by angels, and a date panel. Above the doorway is a pedimented cross window. To the sides of the porch are late 17th-century rectangular panels with oval lights, featuring broken pediments on the ground floor and segmental pediments above; similar lights are found in the gables. Either side of the main facade are 19th-century two-storey bays with bowed fronts, incorporating five curved and two flanking plate-glass sashes with mullions and transoms. The bays and porch have strapwork parapets; a crenellated flat roof sits above the stair well. There are three groups of four ashlar gable stacks in the plain end gables, and ogee gables to the rear on either side of the stair.

Inside, the porch features a quadripartite vault on carved springers. The large central hall has a vine-leaf cornice, doorways with eared architraves and panelled reveals, and a fine 17th-century newel-framed stair with wainscotting, the stair being restored in the mid-19th century. The stair has carved splat balusters, panelled newels with open pyramid tops, and pendants. An 18th-century dogleg stair is located in the rear right-hand extension, with turned balusters, column newels, and a ramped rail. The attic stairs feature turned balusters and panelled newels topped with ball finials.

Attached to the rear is a three-storey, square kitchen block with gables to each side and cross windows.