Ford House And Barton House

Ford House and Barton House are a pair of former agent's houses, dating to the 1880s. They were likely designed for the agent of the Stoodleigh Estate, although the proposed connection to Sir Ernest George, designer of Stoodleigh Court, is now considered stylistically unlikely. The houses are constructed of stone rubble with bitumen-painted slate roofs, and feature stacks with brick shafts, some adorned with ornamental brick cornices.

The design is Gothic in outline, with an asymmetrical double-depth plan. Ford House contains the principal rooms and main staircase, while Barton House incorporates service rooms linked to a range of outbuildings. The house runs parallel to the north-east range of farmbuildings associated with Ford Barton, and is separated from them by a narrow garden and yard.

The exterior is notable for its exceptionally steep roof pitch and deep gables on all elevations, most retaining ornamental bargeboards. The front elevation is asymmetrical, with a 3:1:2 window arrangement and two gables, the right-hand block slightly projecting. A gabled porch shelters the main entrance on the left, with a cambered outer doorway, and a further entrance is present on the right. Windows throughout are timber mullioned, with 1, 2, or 3 lights, and some transomed. A single-storey, slate-roofed range of tiled scalding rooms is set back at the right end of the elevation, featuring a six-bay timber verandah. A covered way connects the house to these scalding rooms. The left return elevation has a gable at the right, a single-storey canted bay window on the ground floor, and timber windows matching those on the front. A plastic replacement attic window is located in the gable. The rear elevation, with four windows, is gabled, has a porch leading into the garden with a cambered outer doorway and half-glazed inner door. An outshut with a stack is located behind the scalding rooms range alongside a central ventilator.

The interior of the service rooms is simple, while Ford House's principal rooms feature moulded plaster cornices and a variety of 19th-century fireplaces, including one with a good iron grate. A dog-leg staircase rises from the entrance hall to the attic storey, with slender balusters, a steeply-ramped handrail, and Tudor-style pendants. This is a very complete and rather idiosyncratic late 19th-century house, characterised by the unusual use of steep gables. Its relationship with the adjacent coeval planned farmyard is particularly significant.