Racedown House With Attached Rear Garden Walls, And Gate Piers To North

Racedown House is a large house set in its own grounds, dating from the mid to late 18th century, with a c.1900 extension to the east. The south elevation features brick walls in Flemish bond with burnt headers and a diapered plat band above the first-floor windows. It has a Ham stone cornice and a brick parapet, topped with a slight stone cornice. The roof is hipped and covered with slate, and there are large compound brick stacks at both gables. The original house is three storeys tall with cellars and has three windows across its width. The ground floor windows are tripartite sashes framed with Roman Doric pilasters in Ham stone, topped with a fluted lintel and oval paterae at each end. The stone cornice and cills are consistent with the late 18th-century style. The front doorway is centrally located and features an architrave, frieze, and cornice that match the adjacent windows, dating from the 18th century. The door, which has glass panels, is from the 20th century, and the stone porch, added in the 19th century, has a similar architrave and plain pilaster corners, along with a heavy moulded stone cornice and a door with six fielded panels. The c.1900 service range added to the house is in a closely similar style, two storeys high with four windows, tripartite sashes, and stone framing, including a round-headed window at the staircase landing and a door with fielded panels and a fanlight above.

The interior has been significantly altered in the 19th and 20th centuries, with re-paneling. It features two shell-headed niches with reeded pilaster surrounds and friezes decorated with vinceaux, along with a central tablet adorned with a swag in the Hall and South room, both of which are either re-set or inserted. The plaster dentil and beaded cornices include ovolo moulds in between.

Attached to the north of the house are rear garden walls made of brick and chert rubble with stone copings, enclosing two terraces. At the northern end, there are brick gate-piers topped with stone obelisk finials. Notably, William and Dorothy Wordsworth lived in this house from 1795 to 1797.