Ford House And Barton House

SS 91 NW STOODLEIGH WEST END LANE

9/178 Ford House and Barton House -

GV II

Former agent's house for the agent to the Stoodleigh Estate, divided into 2 houses. Circa 1880s, said to be designed by Sir Ernest George who designed Stoodleigh Court (q.v. Ravenswood School) for the Daniel family, but this seems, stylistically, rather unlikely. Stone rubble with bitumen-painted slate roofs, gabled at ends; stacks with brick shafts, some with ornamental brick cornices. Plan: Gothic in outline, asymmetrical double depth plan, the principal rooms and main stair in Ford House, the service rooms linked to a range of outbuildings in Barton House. The house is parallel to the north east range of farmbuildings of the co-eval planned farmyard of Ford Barton and separated from them by a narrow garden and yard. Exterior: Remarkable for its extremely steeply-pitched roof and deep gables to each elevation, mostly with surviving ornamental bargeboards. 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 3:1:2 window front with 2 gables to the front, the right hand block slightly broken forward. Principal entrance in the left hand block with a gabled porch with a cambered outer doorway, further entrance on front at right. Fenestration throughout of 1-, 2- and 3-light moulded timber mullioned and some transomed windows. At the right end of the elevation and set back from it is a single-storey slate-roofed range of tiled scalding rooms with a 6-bay timber verandah on the front. Covered way between the right end of the house and the scalding rooms. The 2 bay left return of the house has a gable to the front at the right, a single-storey canted bay window ground floor right and 3-light windows similar to those on the front elevation; attic window in gable a plastic replacement. The 4:1 window rear elevation is gabled to the rear at the right and has a gabled porch into the garden with a cambered outer doorway and half-glazed inner door. Fenestration similar to the other elevations; outshut with stack to rear of scalding rooms range which has a central ventilator. Interior: The service rooms are plain, the principal rooms in Ford House have moulded plaster cornices and a variety of C19 chimneypieces including one with good iron grate. Principal stair rises from entrance hall as a dog-leg to the attic storey, with slender balusters, a steeply-ramped handrail and Tudor style pendants. A very complete and rather idiosyncratic late C19 house with a mannered use of steep gables. The house is particularly interesting in association with the adjacent co- eval planned farmyard.

Listing NGR: SS9133818457