Talboys

Talboys is a detached house dating from the late 14th century to the mid-15th century, with an east wing added in 1876 and a complete restoration carried out in 1899 by Mr. Adye of Bradford-on-Avon. The house is timber-framed with wattle and daub panels on a dressed limestone plinth, and has a stone slate roof with an ashlar stack featuring a moulded capping.

The original structure comprises a two-bay open hall with a cross wing to the west, former service areas, and a matching cross wing added in 1876. It is two storeys and has an attic, with a four-window front. The front features a planked and studded door within a wooden, Tudor-arched doorway enclosed by a gabled, 19th-century porch. There are three-light and four-light wooden mullioned casement windows to the left, a six-light hall window to the right, and four-light and five-light mullioned casements on the first floor. All the windows have cusped-headed lights and restored leaded glass, incorporating green staining. The 15th-century solar wing to the right features two five-light mullioned casements on the ground floor, a jettied first floor with an oriel, and attic windows set within the bracing, with decoratively carved bargeboards. The 1876 wing to the left replicates the design of the solar wing.

The right return shows an external stack for the solar, three-light mullioned casements to the right, a smaller two-light window on the first floor, and a gabled garderobe turret with two-light mullioned casements. The left return contains mullioned casements and a side door. The rear of the house has a central two-storey porch, formerly located on the front prior to the 1899 restoration, with a stone ground floor and a timber-framed first floor. It includes three-light and four-light mullioned casements on either side, and a 20th-century steel casement to the right. The solar wing to the left has six-light mullioned casements on the ground floor and a four-light window on the first floor, with carved bargeboards. The rear wooden mullioned casements lack cusping, and the leaded glass is clear.

Inside, a screens passage divides the former service areas on the left from the hall on the right. The service bay contains a very deep, chamfered beam with stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops, and a 19th-century stone fireplace inscribed with the date 1876. The two-bay open hall has an arch-braced collar truss roof with moulded soffits and three tiers of curved windbraces. There is an original gallery on the south wall, likely moved from above the screens passage; the first floor above the screens passage is jettied. A 19th-century staircase leads to the gallery. The parlour beyond the hall has a fine panelled ceiling with moulded beams and carved bosses, and wall paintings on plaster, which have been partly covered, subsequently restored. The solar above features full panelling and an arch-braced collar truss roof with one tier of curved windbracing.

Various features throughout the house have been restored or are of 19th-century origin, including the wall paintings in the hall, which depict a Talbot dog with a crusader flag on the wall opposite the screens passage. The house was likely constructed by Thomas Barkesdale, a clothier, and was owned by the Talboy family in the 1760s. Miss Chamberlain funded the 1876 restoration.