Bramble Torre House

Bramble Torre House

House, circa mid-18th century, with extensions in the 19th and 20th centuries. A plaque dated 1767 is recorded on the building. Constructed of rendered stone rubble with a slate roof featuring gabled ends, black glazed ridge tiles and a wooden modillion moulded eaves cornice. Projecting rendered stacks are positioned at the gable ends.

The house follows a two-room plan across three storeys with a basement. The two principal rooms are raised as a piano nobile over basement services. Before a single-storey outshut was added in the 19th century at the higher ground level to the rear, a flight of stairs at the front led to a central entrance hall containing a dog-leg staircase between the two principal rooms. A servants' staircase, said to have been boxed in the left-hand room, originally rose from basement services to the attic. The 19th-century outshut contains a kitchen to the left and dairy to the right. A single-storey wing was added to the right of the rear outshut in the 20th century at the higher ground level.

The exterior displays three storeys and basement with a symmetrical three-bay front. Rusticated quoins and keyblocks define the composition. The ground floor is raised as a piano nobile, accessed by a flight of imperial stairs with an arch underneath leading to a central doorway. The stairs have 20th-century wooden balustrades. The doorway features a large keyblock, flat canopy on shaped brackets, and a wide 18th-century fielded eight-panel door with glazed top panels in a moulded doorframe. On the ground and first floors, 18th-century tripartite sashes (4:16:4 panes) flank the entrance; on the second floor, 18th-century two-light sashes (12:12 panes) occupy the outer bays. Single-light 12-pane sashes appear centrally on the first and second floors. All sashes feature large keyblocks. The ground-floor left-hand window sashes have been replaced by hornless modern sashes. Basement windows are 20th-century two-light casements with glazing bars in original openings with segmental heads and keyblocks. A single-storey extension set back at the left end has two 20th-century 12-pane sash windows to the front. A 20th-century flat-roof garage is positioned at the right-hand end at lower ground level.

The rear elevation shows the single-storey outshut at higher ground level with a slate lean-to roof and 20th-century two and three-light casements with glazing bars. A kitchen stack with tall rendered shaft rises to the right. No windows exist above the outshut on the back wall of the house.

Interior features include the principal right-hand room with a circa mid-19th-century Devon limestone chimneypiece bearing an ornate cast-iron grate, segmental-headed alcoves either side and fielded panel dado. The left-hand room's dado panelling and chimneypiece have been replaced, and the servants' staircase (said to have occupied the rear right-hand corner) has been removed. Doorways in the entrance hall have moulded eared architraves and 18th-century six-panel doors. A good dog-leg staircase features a closed string, turned balusters, moulded handrail and square newels with moulded caps. The right-hand first-floor room contains a 19th-century Devon marble chimneypiece with cast-iron grate and glancing alcoves with segmental heads. The left-hand first-floor room has two cupboards with fielded two-panel doors. Basement partitions have been removed; at the left end is the original kitchen fireplace with cambered brick arch and bread oven. In the rear outshut, the present kitchen (behind the left-hand room) has a timber lintel to its fireplace, and the dairy to the right features slate slab shelves. Steps rise from the kitchen to the original back door of the house, which has an 18th-century fielded two-panel door.