Cross House

Cross House, Fore Street, Bishopsteignton

A villa of circa 1830 with minor 20th-century alterations, built in colourwashed stuccoed stone with a two-span hipped slate roof and deep eaves extended over a two-tier verandah on three sides. The main block has a half-hipped slate roof with brick stacks, mostly with rendered shafts, and a timber bellcote with a tented roof. A service wing and smaller service block stand to the north-east, adjacent to Fore Street.

The main block is rectangular on plan, two rooms wide, with two storeys and an attic. The service block rises to three storeys. The entrance is on the south-east side, leading into a heated entrance hall containing the stair.

The building is exceptionally attractive, with a two-tier trellis verandah on timber posts extending across three sides. The first-floor openings are pointed-arched, and the upper tier has an ornamental timber balustrade. The ground floor of the verandah is screened off at the west and south corners to form small sheltered summer-houses, each with a large round window with glazing bars arranged in the form of a flower.

The south-east (entrance) elevation has a seven-bay verandah with a half-glazed 19th-century front door with a pointed-arched fanlight with intersecting glazing bars. French windows with margin panes flank the door. At the left end, the verandah is screened off with a large round window with glazing bars. Three first-floor French windows have upper panes with pointed-arched glazing bars.

The south-west (garden) elevation has a five-bay verandah. At the right end, the verandah has been filled in with 19th-century French windows with timber sashes, presumably replacing the original round window, one of which survives intact in the left-end summerhouse. One French window remains in situ to the ground floor left, with three first-floor French windows matching those on the entrance elevation.

The north-west (garden) elevation has a five-bay verandah with two ground-floor and two first-floor French windows similar to the other elevations. A round window to the summerhouse is at the west corner (right end). The left end of the verandah has been filled in with glazing, with a polygonal 20th-century greenhouse attached.

The north-east elevation, facing Fore Street, is three storeys, with a mixture of timber sashes and casements to the service block, which has a doorway to the street. A round-headed stair window in the main block lights the entrance hall. A tall stone rubble retaining wall to the garden extends along the north-east side of Fore Street.

The interior is very intact. A stick baluster stair with wreathed handrail stands in the entrance hall. Marble chimneypieces are fitted to the entrance hall and principal ground-floor rooms; upper storeys have timber chimneypieces. Moulded plaster cornices decorate the principal rooms, with friezes (possibly of compressed paper). Joinery is complete throughout, with doors, skirting boards, and shutters surviving.

This is an unusually complete gentleman's villa of the early 19th century with a particularly attractive verandah, occupying a prominent position on Fore Street.