Winslade Park

Winslade Park

Substantial mansion, now used as offices. Built circa 1800 by Edward Cotsford, High Sheriff of Devon (died 1810), architect unknown. The original plain house was later embellished with architraves and pediments. A north portico was added sometime after 1862, when the original west portico was converted to receive an extension to the ballroom (a lithograph of 1862 in the Devon Record Office documents this change). The building is constructed in warm orange sandstone-based rendering with a slate hipped roof.

The house is rectangular in plan with rooms arranged around a central open hall rising through all three floors. Three storeys over basement. The central staircase occupies the east range, served by galleries leading from the stairs. The building now forms the centrepiece of the extensive London and Manchester Assurance Company headquarters designed by Powell Moya and Partners, which won the RIBA Architecture Award for the South West Region in 1979.

Exterior details include two large axial stacks on both west and east roofs. A plain parapet replaces an earlier balustrade (visible in a 1949 photograph). A balustrade at ground-floor level runs around all sides except the east, enclosing a stone-faced basement area that allows natural light access. Projections over the basement are carried on rusticated stone arched bridges. Rusticated pilaster quoins mark all angles. Four-pane horned sash windows throughout.

The north entrance front is symmetrical with five bays. A central portico with coupled Doric columns set on a panelled plinth occupies one bay, with an entablature featuring triglyphs and panelled parapet. Double doors with margin windows and fanlight are flanked by pilasters. Ground-floor outer windows are set under pediments on console brackets with architraves featuring central paterae; inner windows are similar but have a panel above the cornice rather than a pediment. First-floor windows have moulded surrounds and floating cornices; second-floor windows have plain surrounds.

The west front is symmetrical with six bays. The central two bays are occupied by the original portico, converted in the late 19th century into a projecting single-storey ballroom (now a conference room). The pediments of the side windows and the segmental pediment of the west door are contained within the parapet. Steps lead to the door, flanked by sash windows. The parapet is surmounted by elaborate cast iron railings. Ground-floor windows are all under pediments, treated as on the north front.

The south front is symmetrical with five bays, windows treated as on the west front. A central wide doorway with pilasters and segmental pediment is approached via the balustrade, which returns to form a stepped bridge.

The rear elevation is asymmetrical with six bays. First-storey windows have pediments. A stairwell with windows at four tiers breaks the line of the three storeys. A bridge at first-floor level, added in the late 1970s, links the house with the new office complex.

Interior: The central hall well is an impressive room lit by a glazed dome, with all doors panelled and moulded. Ground floor features round-headed arched entrances with panelled pilasters and capitals. The first-floor gallery is supported by Ionic columns with a dentilled cornice decorated with a Vitruvian scroll motif. The upper gallery is supported by fluted columns with anthemion-motif capitals and a cornice with Greek key frieze. The top tier features square-section fluted columns. All cornice soffits are decorated, and gallery balustrades have turned balusters. A coved ceiling below the glazed dome is decorated with paterae and husked festoons.

A notable interior feature is that the east-side corner columns stand slightly to one side of the corner. There is a possibility that the basement dates to the 16th century, although nothing early is now visible, and this odd arrangement may represent a response to a technical difficulty presented by the original basement construction.

The openwell cantilever stair, probably post-1862, features cast iron balusters that alternate between designs: three with a spiral twist centre on one tread, a single double-scroll on the next, with scroll motifs to each stair end. Stair landings are lit by two windows, some round-headed with fluted architrave. Galleries are entered through depressed arches. The coved ceiling has festoons, with a central panel featuring a ribbed and fluted oval centrepiece and attendant festoons.

Two other notable plaster ceilings deserve mention. In the south-west room, an unusual design features a central octagon with concave sides set in an imbricated panel with corner fans. Two rectangular panels at each end contain a long central rod with undulate foliate band and bucranium, with a modillion cornice. The north entrance hall has large panels of varied design, each with heavy modillion cornices.