Frognel

TORQUAY

SX9263 HIGHER WOODFIELD ROAD 885-1/18/117 (West side) 10/01/75 Frognel

GV II

Large villa, used as hotel. Probably late 1840s/early 1850s. Plastered; gabled half-hipped slate roof; stacks with octagonal clustered shafts with coped bases and corbelled caps. Tudor Gothic style. PLAN: Rectangular double-depth main block, entrance on south side into passage from which stair rises at right-angles. Service wing at right-angles to north-east forms one side of stable/service yard east of house. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, attic and basement. Deep eaves, the verges with cusped pierced bargeboards with moulded pendants. Almost symmetrical 3-bay front with 2 gables and a gabled first-floor oriel in the centre. Projecting porch with coped gable with kneelers and chamfered Tudor arched doorway. Original inner door with vertical panels and Tudor arched fanlight with intersecting glazing bars. Windows with chamfered frames and moulded mullions, glazed with casements with glazing bars; main windows with hoodmoulds and transoms, first-floor outer windows with Venetian shutters. Ground-floor window left C20, following removal of conservatory, the position of which is marked by a moulded string. Left return also 3-bay and originally symmetrical with canted bays to left and right on the ground floor and central gabled dormer. First floor window left altered with mid C20 addition of deep balcony with sun lounge. East elevation roofs have angled half-hips through which the chimney-shafts project. To right of the entrance elevation, a chamfered archway with octagonal piers gives access to the service/stable yard. Elevations into this yard very altered. INTERIOR: Retains original stick baluster stair; plaster cornices; original joinery and marble chimneypieces. Late C19 plans for proposed billiard room and library (not built) hang in the hall. In spite of some alterations this is probably the best surviving example of the Gothic type of Torquay villa where rather quirky Gothic details are applied to a conventional symmetrical stuccoed villa design.

Listing NGR: SX9254563442