Wildersmouth Villa

Wildersmouth Villa is a house from the early to mid 19th century located in Ilfracombe. It features rendered solid walls and has a hipped roof with a central valley, covered in tarred slates, while the rear slope uses asbestos slates. There is a rendered chimney on each side wall.

The villa has a square, double-depth plan and stands two storeys tall. The front elevation is three windows wide, showcasing a rusticated ground storey with corner pilasters that extend to a small entablature at the eaves. The ground storey includes square bay windows with stone mullions and transoms, featuring small-paned glazing with margin-panes. Each bay has a pitched roof topped by a smaller bay window for the second storey. These upper windows are also mullioned and have gabled, pedimented roofs that rise above the eaves, with each light containing four panes, the topmost being round-headed.

To the right, there is a single-storey entrance porch set back from the main facade. It features a round-arched doorway with a moulded archivolt and imposts, and a door with two moulded panels and a patterned fanlight. The porch also has a moulded top cornice and a shaped blocking-course. The right-hand side wall is plain, except for a record-arched window on the second storey, which contains a sash window with six panes in the lower sash and patterned glazing in the upper sash. This wall is partly obscured by the adjoining house, Pengwern, which is not included in the listing.

The Ilfracombe tithe map from 1840 indicates that a building was present on this site at that time. Wildersmouth Villa is noted as the finest example among the early and mid 19th-century houses that once dotted the hillside north of the town before later developments in the late 19th century.