Iford Manor

Iford Manor is a manor house situated partly in Freshford, Avon, dating to the late 17th century. It was largely refronted around 1730 and extended and altered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by H. Peto for his own use. The house is constructed of rubble stone with limestone ashlar facing, and has roofs of stone slate or Welsh slate, with stone stacks.

The main front is three storeys and five windows, typical of the early 18th century. A central double door is set within a bolection-moulded architrave surmounted by a segmental pediment. Either side of the doorway are two 12-pane sashes, each with a pediment. The first floor has five sashes, the central one with a segmental pediment, and the flanking bays with triangular pediments. The facade is distinguished by channelled quoins, a moulded cornice, and a balustraded parapet. A two-storey range to the left has two sashes with thick glazing bars to the ground floor, and two later sashes to the first floor, culminating in a plain blocking course and cornice. The left return has a door with six fielded panels and 12-pane sashes. A gabled wing from the 18th century attached to the left has beaded mullioned casements and sashes. The right return features an early 20th-century three-bay loggia with round-headed arches, a wrought iron balcony to the first floor, glazed inner doors, French windows, and chamfered mullioned casements to the right. The first floor has three early 19th-century margin-pane French windows with hoodmoulds. The second floor has a bull's eye window, a single ovolo-moulded light, and two 17th-century attic gables with 2-light ovolo-mullioned casements with hoodmoulds. A conservatory attached to the right, at a higher level, has four 2-light casements with thick glazing bars. The rear includes a 1930s range across a courtyard with leaded casements, and a late 19th-century wing with stone cross windows.

The interior retains 17th-century fittings, including a cavetto-moulded Tudor-arched doorway and a Tudor-arched fireplace with cusps and roll moulds, both moved by Peto. Other 17th-century fittings were reset by H. Peto, including stone Tudor-arched fireplaces, linenfold panelling, and wainscot. Early 18th-century rooms are characterised by full fielded panelling, a dentil cornice, and fitted cupboards, along with fielded panelled doors and window shutters. An early 19th-century open-well staircase has a continuous moulded handrail, turned balusters, cantilevered stone treads. A first-floor drawing room in the 17th-century wing has reeded door and window architraves, a plaster ceiling, and a painted frieze by H. Peto. Peto brought a collection of sculptural carvings to the house and garden, including fine wooden statues of St Anne and St Barbara, which now reside in the 17th-century wing. Also incorporated are fragments of 15th-century stained glass, a French fireplace, and other carved wood elements, especially in a room to the right of the entrance.