Primley House

PAIGNTON

SX86SE TOTNES ROAD 1947-1/2/129 (North side) 10/01/75 Primley House (Formerly Listed as: TOTNES ROAD Primley House, The Herbert Whitley Trust)

GV II

Large villa now in use as old people's home. c1820s with later C19 alterations. MATERIALS: Rendered; slate roof; stacks with deep projecting cornices. PLAN: Deep rectangular plan, the main block 2-rooms-wide with a central entrance facing the stair, rear service and subsidiary blocks. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. Symmetrical 5-bay entrance block with hipped roof; left and right panelled clasping pilasters, a platband at first-floor level and a plain parapet, probably replacing one with a cornice. Centre bay slightly set back. Open Doric porch with paired columns with an entablature, moulded cornice and parapet crowned with pretty c1870s wrought-iron balustrade. Steps up to porch with half-glazed C19 inner porch with a dentil cornice and 2-leaf inner door with a low panel and glazing bars. Porch paved with monochromatic plain and encaustic tiles. 4 ground-floor 12-pane C19 sashes without horns; 5 similar first-floor sashes, all with scalloped fascias for sunblinds. 5-bay left return scar of former conservatory, partial platband, 12-pane sashes and high-transomed French window; one C20 porch with glazed doors. To the far left a slightly projecting 8-bay block, with a 2-bay recessed section has 2 gables to the front with bullseyes with moulded surrounds in the gable. 4-bay right-hand block has first-floor pilasters and a dentil frieze below the cornice. The 2 right-hand bays have a ground floor bow window with C20 glazing with timber glazing bars, cornice and parapet. Mostly C19 windows throughout, some glazed with C19 small-pane sashes, some with later 2-pane sashes. Unfortunate C20 single-storey projecting porch. The right return of the building is in the same style but with, at the right end, a probably 1860s 3-storey block with a hipped roof, deep eaves, and 3-bay front glazed with 4-pane sashes. Left end has stack with scrolled stuccoed brackets. INTERIOR: Ground floor of main block inspected. Stair with cast-iron balusters and mahogany handrail. 2 principal left-hand rooms retain white Italian marble chimney-pieces, delicate decorated plaster ceiling friezes and cornices, and folding doors in the party wall. The left-hand room has a late Victorian painted marble chimny-piece and C19 cornice. Other features of interest may survive elsewhere in the house. HISTORY: Home of the Belfield family, who lived in Paignton from the 1550s. The Reverend Finney Belfield, vicar of Torre, retired to Primley House in 1825. He restored the late medieval pulpit in the Church of St John, Church Street (qv). (Ellis AC: An Historical Survey of Torquay, 2nd ed.: 1930-: 227).

Listing NGR: SX8775260196