Sadborow House

Sadborow House is a country house situated within a small park, built between 1773 and 1775 by John Johnson for John Bragge at a cost of £2,589 2s 4½ d. A two-story wing was added in 1843, incorporating West additions and alterations in a neo-Grecian style. The house is constructed of Portland stone ashlar facing, with slate and asphalt roofs of shallow pitch.

The house is square in plan, with the main entrance facing East. The East, North, and South fronts are symmetrically designed, with three stories and five window bays on the East front. The windows are sash windows with wooden glazing bars and crown glass. The East front features a plinth, a flat band at first floor level, and a block cornice. A central entrance is accentuated by blind arcading above the ground floor windows. A stone porch with panelled sides was added in the early 19th century. There is an arcaded and pedimented chimney stack above the cornice, also from the early 19th century. The South front incorporates a wide, semi-circular bay window extending to full height. On the North front, an early 19th-century addition covers the first four bays to the East. A stone panel displays a relief carving of the arms of Bragge impaling Sparrow, the Bragge crest, and the date 1843. The North entrance incorporates a stone surround taken from the original East entrance doorway.

The interior is characterized by an entrance hall opening into a central, domed staircase hall that extends to the full height of the house. The entrance to the domed hall is via a wide, elliptical arch supported by entablatures with a fluted frieze, columns and pilasters with fluted capitals. The West wall of the stair-hall is semi-circular in plan. The staircase features a mahogany handrail with wrought iron balusters. The landing is divided into two sections by an open screen composed of columns. The dome is decorated with plasterwork panels containing arms and trophies, swags, and rosettes, lit by a skylight. The north-east ground floor room is distinguished by an open screen of two Ionic columns, a frieze displaying arms and wreaths, and a cornice. The south-east room contains festoons and small roundels featuring figure subjects. The south drawing room prominently features the large south bay. The plasterwork in this room includes anthemion details. A white marble fireplace is adorned with a Caryatid torch bearer, two cherubs in the imposts, and a central, historiated neo-classical panel. Doorways in the north-east and south-east rooms have been embellished with scroll tops, above which are plaster panels featuring reliefs of urns and confronting gryphons.

Sadborow House is noted as a Neo-classical building possessing a notable external severity; the internal plasterwork is described as simplified and of provincial quality.