Poulton House

Poulton House is a substantial early 18th-century residence built in 1706 for William Liddard, with extensions added in the early to mid-19th century. The house exemplifies Queen Anne style architecture and represents a particularly attractive example of its period.

The exterior is constructed in Flemish bond red brick with vitrified headers, rusticated stone quoins, and stone stringcourse. The roof is slate with a hipped form, lead roll hips and ridge, and a moulded timber modillion eaves cornice. Two tall brick axial stacks with moulded stone cornices rise prominently from the roofline.

The house rises to two storeys with an attic and cellar. The symmetrical south front displays a 2:3:2 bay arrangement, with the centre three bays breaking forward beneath a pediment containing an oval oculus. The principal entrance features a stone portal with a broken pediment mounted on console brackets, decorated with arabesques and a cartouche. The windows are twelve-pane sashes in exposed cases; the thin glazing bars are a later 18th-century replacement. Flat rubbed brick arches frame the principal windows. Cellar windows are set in two-light stone frames. Lead drainpipes with moulded hopper heads are inscribed "WL1706". A Sun fire insurance plaque is visible on the facade. Two flat roof dormers with multi-pane sash windows punctuate the main roof. The east side features similar sash windows and a late 20th-century canted bay window. The rear north side contains wooden cross-mullion-transom windows with leaded panes, three flat roof dormers with leaded pane casements, and a later lean-to outshut on the ground floor. An early to mid-19th-century brick service wing extends to the right with wooden mullion-transom windows with leaded pane casements, and a later brick extension fills the angle. The west side of the rear wing has twelve-pane sashes on the first floor and 20th-century casements on the ground floor.

The plan is symmetrically arranged on a double-depth rectangular footprint. Two principal rooms occupy the front on either side of a central entrance hall, which contains the staircase. Two small rooms and servants' stairs occupy the rear. Kitchen and service rooms were originally located in the cellar before a service wing was constructed to the rear left in the early to mid-19th century.

The interior contains fine early 18th-century joinery and plasterwork. The entrance hall features two portals with elliptical arches and fielded panel doors flanking the stairs. The principal staircase is of exceptional quality, with twisted newels and two twisted balusters per tread. The heavy moulded handrail ramps up to newels. Fielded dado panelling lines the stairwell. The stairwell ceiling displays fine moulded plaster of late 17th-century type, with an outer border of vines and an inner oval of fruit. The coved panel over the landing is plain. The landing has two-panel doors with moulded doorframes, the centre door surmounted by a pediment.

The ground floor right-hand front parlour contains a late 18th-century marble chimneypiece and a 19th-century ceiling border. The left-hand front parlour retains a plaster ceiling cornice and a neo-Classical wooden chimneypiece, with panelled window shutters and door. The little parlour at the rear of the left-hand room features fielded panelling, a bolection chimneypiece, and a pretty moulded plaster ceiling decorated with trails of bay and oak leaves and Tudor roses; this ceiling is partly a late 20th-century restoration. An early 18th-century dogleg back staircase with square newels and turned balusters serves the rear rooms. Wide cellar stairs with brick and timber treads descend from panelled doors. The cellar is partly vaulted.