Tullimaar

Country house, built circa 1828 for Benjamin Sampson, manager of a local powder factory. The house is constructed of stuccoed rubble with hipped dry Delabole slate roofs, featuring a central leaded valley. Wide eaves support cast iron ogee and stuccoed chimneys with cornices over cross and axial walls. The plan comprises a central entrance leading to a large stair hall, with three principal rooms to the right facing the garden, and a larger room to the left of the entrance. A kitchen is located behind the hall, with a service room in a wing to its left and rear. A circa early 20th-century conservatory projects from the left-hand corner of the entrance front.

The house is in a Neo-Classical style. It is two storeys high, with plinths, string courses, square cornices, and corner pilasters on all fronts. The symmetrical, three-bay, three-window south garden front features pilasters dividing the bays and windows set within basket-arched recesses. The east garden front is symmetrical with three windows set in rectangular recesses. The west entrance front is regular with a 2:1:1 bay, four-window arrangement, with windows similarly set in recesses. The round-headed doorway to the third bay from the left retains its original fanlight with flower petal panes. A fine Doric porch features unfluted columns and a plain frieze. Most windows are original 12-pane hornless sashes with thin glazing bars, though some are later horned copies; the stairwell has a round-headed sash.

The interior is largely complete with original 19th-century carpentry, joinery, some chimney pieces, and plasterwork. Features include mahogany six-panel doors, an open-well open-string stair, and moulded plaster cornices to the principal reception rooms, stair hall, and chambers. Cornices and bands throughout the reception rooms and stair hall display carved classical enrichments, including egg and dart, acanthus, and trailing or plaited detail. Central roses are found in the left and right reception rooms and stair hall. A fine classical dresser is present in the kitchen. A commemorative plaque in the central east room marks the site where a sentry fired a shot through a window in 1944 while General Eisenhower used the house as his personal headquarters before D-Day.

Tullimaar has historically hosted numerous distinguished residents and guests, including Sarah Parkin, mistress to George III, and the Reverend Francis Kilvert, who stayed in 1870. From 1957 to 1974, it was owned by Princess Marthe Bibesco and her daughter, Princess Valentine Ghika (direct descendants of Emperor Napoleon) and Prince Ghika. Sale particulars of 1974 mentioned a complete transformation of the interior in French style, though the present interior appears characteristic of early 19th-century English houses, likely reflecting alterations to furnishings. The house stands in well-planted grounds, overlooking the Kennal Valley.