Well

Well is a large house at Ideford, Olchard Lane, dating from circa 1700, though it may represent a remodelling of an earlier building. It has been divided into three dwellings in the late twentieth century. The house underwent some refurbishment in the late eighteenth century and was refenestrated circa the mid-nineteenth century.

The building is constructed of roughcast stone with a slate roof, gabled at the ends with sprocketed eaves. The rear staircase wing is gableted at its end with chimney stacks featuring decorative shafts. A rear lateral stack to the main range projects through the roof at the junction with the outshut, and another stack to the staircase wing projects through the roof.

This is a high-status three-storey house consisting of a main range three rooms wide, with left and right rear outshuts under catslide roofs on either side of a large central staircase wing. The main range features a central entrance into a large heated panelled entrance hall, with a principal room to the north (left) and a kitchen to the south (right). The entrance hall is heated from the rear lateral stack; a doorway to the right of the stack opens onto a fine dog-leg staircase in the rear wing, which has an outshut on the north side, with the stair rising to a landing on the second storey. The rear right outshut provides an access corridor to the kitchen with a doorway in the entrance hall adjacent to the stair doorway. The left-hand ground floor room was also panelled, although this panelling is said to no longer exist. Three first-floor panelled rooms form a kind of piano nobile.

The plan form suggests an intriguing development from the traditional earlier three-room arrangement: the kitchen to the right corresponds to the lower end; the traditional seventeenth-century hall has been recast as a fashionable entrance hall but is still heated by a lateral stack; and the left-hand ground floor room corresponds to the inner room. The building could be a thorough remodelling of a late sixteenth or early seventeenth-century house, or a transitional plan type of circa 1700. Although some interior joinery dates from circa 1700, other details indicate partial refurbishment in the late eighteenth century. Circa the mid-nineteenth century, the front elevation was refenestrated and a new porch was added. The subdivision into three dwellings involved the provision of a new external stair to the rear wing, with little alteration to the principal rooms.

The front elevation is symmetrical with five bays. The bays flanking the central front door have windows to the ground floor only, presumably providing more scope for panelling in the first-floor central room. A central Roman Doric porch with engaged columns and a triglyph frieze frames the front door, which features fielded panels. The ground floor windows, two on either side of the front door, are tripartite sashes with 12 panes to the centre and 4 panes to the outer lights. Above the front door are paired 12-pane sashes. The central second-floor window is a pair of 6-pane sashes, flanked by small tripartite sashes with 6 panes to the centre lights and 2 to the outer lights (some glazing bars are missing). The rear elevation has a plank and stud door leading into the kitchen outshut.

The interior contains a remarkable survival of panelling. The central ground floor room is panelled throughout. The door surround is bolection-moulded and dates from circa 1700, but the two-leaf door to the stairs below a blind round-headed arch with a key block and blind lunette feature appears to be late eighteenth-century. The chimney-piece is twentieth-century, but otherwise the room is entirely intact. The left-hand room of the front range was not inspected at the time of survey but is said to have lost its panelling.

The wide dog-leg staircase has a panelled dado and three flights with a moulded handrail and fine splat balusters with a vase-shaped profile. The slightly unusual construction of the balustrade on the first flight suggests the possibility that it may have been applied to an earlier staircase. The landing on the second storey is particularly handsome with halved balusters at the newel post.

The first-floor rooms to the right and centre also retain intact panelling: the right-hand room has a bolection-moulded chimney-piece, and the centre room has an Adam-style chimney-piece including marble work and delicate orders of moulding. The first-floor room to the left was not inspected but is said also to be panelled. The second floor has been repartitioned. An old list description refers to a hearth of slates placed edgeways in diamond patterns in the attic; this feature was not seen at the time of survey in 1986.

The kitchen has a high ceiling with two chamfered cross beams. The fireplace has been adapted for a range but remains massive in scale. A chamfered stopped doorframe between the kitchen and kitchen outshut is probably mid- to late seventeenth-century and, if not re-used, indicates the early origins of the building.

Well is a fine house with a particularly impressive interior and an extremely interesting plan form. It was formerly the property of Torre Abbey.