Adam House

Adam House is a house located in Calne, dating largely to the 17th century, with a substantial refronting around 1740, alongside 19th and 20th century additions to the interior and rear. It is constructed of limestone ashlar to the front, with coursed rubblestone to the rear, and has a stone slate roof with coped gables and moulded stacks to the gable ends. The house follows an L-shaped plan, incorporating a front block with a central stairhall and an older rear left wing.

It is two storeys with an attic and basement, presented as a symmetrical five-window arrangement. The front features pilaster strips defining the quoins, a cornice, and a parapet that rises in the centre, finished with pineapple finials. A ground-floor cill string supports paired 6/6-pane sash windows set within raised architraves, flanking a central Venetian window above a six-panel door. The Venetian window is framed by a moulded architrave with a bracketed pediment, and is accompanied by 19th-century leaded stained-glass windows on either side.

The room to the right of the entrance hall contains early to mid-18th century full-height panelling, a narrow box cornice, raised-and-fielded panelled shutters, and a late 19th century black marble fireplace and grate. A polychromatic tile floor extends through the central hall. To the right of the hall, a balustrade staircase, constructed of oak with turned balusters, swept rails, elm treads, and painted raised-and-fielded pine panelling below the dado, rises in an open-well configuration.

To the left of the staircase, steps lead down to the 17th-century rear wing, where the floor level is approximately 1 meter lower than the hall. This wing retains an ogee-moulded beam with run-out stops and a former exterior wall (now enclosed by a 20th-century passage), which includes a four-light ovolo-mullioned leaded window. The room at the end of this wing, slightly larger, has a former open fire with a repositioned lower bressumer against the left wall. A semi-elliptical vaulted basement extends forward beneath the 18th-century house; between this and the present kitchen are two cavities, approximately 1 meter high and 2.5 meters long. The first floor retains some 18th-century hob grates to the front. The roof structure of the rear wing is constructed from reused timbers, including an inverted 17th-century moulded beam with roll-stop chamfers on the upper edge.

Photographs taken during interior replastering revealed rubblestone relieving arches spanning the floor levels of the 17th-century building. It is locally reported that Adam House is named after Robert Adam, the architect who worked on Bowood House, and is said to have resided here.