Oriel House Paradise Point Paradise Point And Oriel House Including Front Boundary Wall

Oriel House, Paradise Point and Oriel House including front boundary wall

A large house at Warfleet Road, Warfleet, Dartmouth, dating from circa 1855, with the Oriel House part added circa 1900. The former billiard room block has since been divided off as a separate dwelling.

The main house is constructed in Flemish-bond yellow brick with minimal Bathstone dressings. Some painted brick appears on the service side, and slate-hanging is used selectively. Projecting end, rear lateral and axial brick stacks support chimneyshafts with old pots.

The plan is double-depth with two rooms wide, a central entrance passage and main stairs positioned off the right side. Principal rooms occupy the left side and rear, while service rooms are to the right. The former billiard room extension projects forward from the right corner.

The exterior displays two storeys with attics, with Oriel House comprising two storeys. Multi-gabled elevations characterise the design. The entrance front features an asymmetrical 1:2:1-window range, all openings under flat brick arches. Most windows are narrow horned 8-pane sashes, except the first-floor right window which is a horned 12-pane sash. The central bay projects forward with canted corners to the first floor and a parapet above. It contains a doorway to the right flanked by pilaster buttresses, with a fielded 6-panel door under a plain overlight. Another doorway in the right bay has a wide elliptical arch and contains a similar door with side lights and a large fanlight with intersecting glazing bars.

The gable-ended roof features a central gable with open scroll-pattern bargeboards continued under the eaves as a valance, incorporating bold pendants and finials at each apex, corner and valley. Other sides follow the same style.

The left end displays a 3-window range with mostly horned 12-pane sashes and a canted bay on the ground floor to the right. A timber verandah and balcony run round the northern corner with French windows behind: three bays on each side on square posts with moulded capitals supporting low Tudor arches and console brackets to the balcony floor. The ground floor is glazed, with each bay containing three lights with horizontal panes below a clerestorey with vertical glazing bars. The verandah features a simple patterned balustrade.

The rear includes another French window to the left of the verandah and another canted bay on the ground floor to the left. The right end is slate-hung with a less regular arrangement, incorporating a projecting service block with casement windows.

The former billiard room block, now Oriel House, is a circa 1900 version in the same style but extensively modernised in the 20th century. It features a first-floor oriel window, a round-headed doorway, 20th-century twelve-pane probably-original sashes without glazing bars, a glazed ridge and slate-hanging to the rear.

The interior, though not inspected, is noted as having a stick-baluster open-string stair, panelled doors and original chimneypieces.

A tall stone rubble wall runs alongside the road and is probably original, incorporating a round-headed gateway close to the service end of the house.

The house was built on the site of Paradise Fort. From 1861 to 1878 it was home to George Parker Bidder, known as "The Calculating Boy", who was taken from the fairground and whose education was sponsored by wealthy patrons. He later prospered as an inventive entrepreneur, developing the steam trawler. The house occupies a prominent position and forms part of a group with other listed buildings around Warfleet Creek.