Gitcombe Including Front Garden Wall To East And Gate Piers

This is a house, formerly a farmhouse, dating to circa 1830-40. It is constructed of local stone rubble with red brick window dressings, likely originally stuccoed. The roof is hipped and covered with scantle slates, originally paired brackets to the deep eaves, and slated again in the 1990s with similar scantle slates. Axial red brick stacks are present.

The house follows a double-depth, almost square plan. The two principal rooms are located at the front; a deeper dining room to the left, with a large kitchen behind, and a shallower drawing room to the right, with a small study behind and a butler's pantry at the back. The entrance hall, running the full depth of the house, contains a stairwell at the back between the kitchen and pantries. Linked to the main house by a covered passageway on the left is a circa 18th century cottage.

The east front is symmetrical with three bays. It features original 16-pane sashes, with a 12-pane sash on the centre of the first floor. A central doorway has an original panelled door, reveals and a large portico with pairs of stuccoed Doric columns and pilasters supporting an entablature canopy. The north return has a longer, almost symmetrical three-bay elevation of original windows. The first-floor windows on the left are 16-pane sashes, while those to the right and centre are closer-spaced 12-pane sashes. The ground-floor window on the right is a two-light sash. The rear elevation contains original 12 and 20-pane sashes, and a tall, narrow, round-headed stair sash with glazing bars. The circa 18th century cottage has a Welsh slate roof, a gable-end stack, 20th century windows at the front, and a lean-to outshut at the back. It is used as a holiday cottage.

The interior is virtually unaltered, with all original internal joinery intact, including panelled doors and window shutters. The front right-hand room has a fine moulded plaster cornice with acanthus brackets and an imported reeded marble chimneypiece. The left-hand room has a moulded plaster cornice and a plain marble chimneypiece. The hall has a modillion cornice. The open-well staircase in the entrance hall has a moulded mahogany handrail and wreathed curtail. The landing has a cornice with egg and dart moulding, anthemion and Vitruvian scroll details.

The front garden features a circa 19th century low slate rubble wall with rough slate copping, and square gate piers with slate caps. A retaining wall runs along the lower ground on the outer right side of the garden.