Parc Venton

Parc Venton is a house dating from the 1820s, built for Commander Drew, who was an officer with the Customs and Excise. The house is constructed of stuccoed stone, with some cob on the interior. It has a slurried slate roof and a rendered chimney. The building is square in plan, with a central open staircase. It is two and a half storeys high and symmetrical. The main, north-east elevation has three recessed bays, each two stories high, that terminate in 4-centred arches above the first-floor windows. Much of the original window arrangement remains. On the ground floor, there are two later casement windows with glazing bars, featuring margin glazing bars in the rectangular fanlight above and fielded panels below. A central fielded panelled double door is located in the central recessed bay. Above this are three 4-centred fanlights with intersecting glazing bars, above later casement windows with glazing bars and fielded panelled shutters. The south-east elevation continues the rhythm of the recessed bays, with the ground floor third bay and the first floor first and third bays being blind. The fenestration of the second bay on the south-east elevation is the same as that of the main elevation. A 20th-century window with glazing bars has been inserted into the ground floor first bay. Blind recessed bays also continue on the north-west elevation, which is partially blocked by a later 20th-century garage. The roof is hipped with a pantiled section in the centre resting on a rendered plinth, which obscures an earlier arrangement of unknown design, possibly balustrading or a clerestory. A central chimney stack rises from the apex of the roof. The interior rooms are arranged around an elegant, elongated kidney-shaped spiral staircase; the stairwell and rooms contain good original features. Rooms open onto landings and the staircase. Internal walls feature semicircular curves that project inward at the cornices, with repeated curves flanking the windows. Moulded cornices and largely unchanged 3-panelled doors and window surrounds with lambs tongue moulding are present. Fireplaces have been replaced. The first floor has decorative plasterwork including gothick detailing, such as pointed relieving arches over windows, vaulting ribs terminating in oak leaves, elegant elongated pilasters and columns, and a tripartite arched and moulded screen in one first-floor room.