Dairy And Grotto

Dairy and grotto, probably dating from the early 19th century and built alongside work at Prideaux Place. The structure is built of stone rubble with large boulders and shells on the west elevation, and has a slate roof with hipped ends, partially covered by a tarpaulin. The roof extends down on the east front to form a verandah supported by three slender iron columns. The building follows a two-cell plan with entrances on both the east and west sides, the east entrance partially sheltered by the verandah. The entrances lead into a south-facing anteroom; the dairy itself is north of the anteroom and is oval in shape. The architectural style is Gothic. The dairy and grotto are situated at right angles to the stables and form the west end of the stable yard. On the east elevation, there is an asymmetrical two-window front with a 2-light casement with lattice glazing bars to the left and a 4-centred arched window opening with stanchions and lattice glazing bars to the right. The west elevation, which faces the overgrown pleasure gardens, is designed to resemble a grotto, with the wall faced with large boulders and decorated with shells and a central plaster medallion. There are two round-arched doorway openings leading into the anteroom and the dairy. The anteroom contains remains of a partly collapsed coved plaster ceiling and evidence of a stove that likely scalded cream. The oval dairy has curved slate tables around the edge, supported by Gothic 4-centred arches and legs decorated with cusped blind tracery and quatrefoils in the spandrels. The table tops have shallow drainage channels forming a decorative pattern. The dairy has two windows on the north and east sides with 4-centred arched openings, featuring miniature bucrania carved as stops to the inner labels. Remnants of painted glass are visible in the north window. Despite being in poor condition, the dairy retains much of its original Gothic plasterwork and demonstrates the ideals of the Picturesque Movement of the mid to late 18th century.