Little Oldway

Little Oldway is a villa dating to approximately 1850, with alterations made in the 1870s for Isaac Merritt Singer. It is currently used as a home for the elderly. The villa is constructed of stuccoed and blocked-out material, with a slate roof and stacks featuring grouped rendered shafts with cornices. A tower, added in the 1870s and built of local red breccia rubble, is a notable feature. The overall plan is approximately rectangular, oriented northwards, with a tower at the southwest corner designed to resemble the 14th-century tower associated with the Bishop's Palace ruins in Palace Place, Paignton.

The front façade is asymmetrical, with a four-window arrangement and a shallow gabled projection to the right of centre. It features deep eaves and a platband at the first-floor level. A central entrance is recessed within a bay and has a shallow, pilastered, pedimented porch with a panelled door, the upper panels glazed. A service doorway to the right has pilasters with sunk panels, a pediment, a 20th-century four-panel door with glazed upper panels, and glazed side lights. Ground-floor windows have cornices on consoles, one with sill blocks, and all are fitted with 20th-century timber casements. A projecting stack separates the left-hand bay windows. The first floor has four windows, three with segmental heads and unusual stuccoed hoods, and they are also fitted with 20th-century 2-light timber casements. The left return is in a similar style with matching window surrounds. The garden elevation has a wide, 2-storey canted bay to the right, with ground-floor French windows. A central three-bay section has matching windows and a replacement Chinese Chippendale verandah with a glazed roof and segmental-headed arches. Set forward to the left is a four-stage embattled, tapering tower, designed as a copy of the tower associated with the ruins of the Bishop's Palace. This tower has lancet and trefoil-headed windows arranged in pairs. The left return of the tower mirrors these windows, and to its left is a two-storey red breccia block with a segmental-headed arched door and a pair of half-glazed doors with glazed side lights. Further windows are 12-pane sashes with segmental heads and chamfered stone surrounds.

The interior retains 19th-century doors, although the stair balustrade has been covered to meet fire regulations. Isaac Merritt Singer resided at Little Oldway while Oldway Mansion, located immediately to the east, was under construction.