Gresford

Gresford is a villa dating from the 1870s, situated in Torquay. The building is of Italianate style. It has a double-depth rectangular plan with a projecting south-east corner tower and a north service wing which is separately occupied.

The exterior is plastered with a slate roof and stacks featuring rendered shafts with deep projecting cornices. The east front has a 1:1-window arrangement, with the tower to the left, featuring a deep hipped roof corbelled out on shaped brackets. The entrance block is gabled with a verge band, platband and pilaster strips. A projecting flat-roofed porch has paired pilasters, an entablature, a dentil cornice and a parapet. It contains a round-headed doorway with pilasters, a moulded arch, a keyblock, a panelled front door, and a plain fanlight. The returns have round-headed windows. The first floor has a segmental-headed window with a moulded, eared, shouldered architrave, fitted with a tripartite sash. The tower's lower stage features round-headed windows with sill blocks, one to each face, while the upper stage has similar windows linked by a superordinate moulded arch with keyblocks. The garden elevation incorporates two-storey canted bays with cornices, and a 20th-century first-floor bowed cast-iron balcony between them, which is glazed.

The interior retains many original features, including an open-well staircase with turned balusters and bronze figures supporting lamps on the newel posts. Original plaster cornices, joinery, and white Italian marble chimneypieces are also present. The porch has an original tiled floor and the entrance hall contains stained glass. A fine chimneypiece in the dining room, featuring massive sculpted figures, is said to be a copy of an Italian original brought into the house in the 20th century.

Historically, it is believed that Lord Haldon lived in the house, although this remains unverified. Gresford serves as a good example of a large Torquay villa, currently in use as a dwelling and notable for its lavish interior detail.