Powderham House

Powderham House is a former rectory dating to 1878 and built for Sir Hugh Courtenay. A large part of the service wing was dismantled in the 1970s and rebuilt in the 1980s as a castellated, single-storey block. The house is constructed of grey limestone with Bath stone dressings, featuring a gabled slate roof and stone stacks with both stone and brick shafts. It is built in a Tudor style, which is relatively conservative for its date.

Originally, the main block was double depth, with two rooms wide and a central entrance on the north side leading to an entrance hall containing a dogleg staircase with a landing. A drawing room and dining room are located to the rear, overlooking the parkland of Powderham Castle. Other rooms include a study to the front left, and a service room, likely a butler’s pantry, to the front right, with a service wing attached to the west end.

The north front has an asymmetrical two-window facade, featuring a gabled two-storey porch with a moulded Tudor arched doorframe, a C19 plank front door with ornamental ironwork, and a two-light mullioned and transomed stair window above. A projecting stack is positioned to the left of the entrance, while a gable incorporating two ground-floor and first-floor two-light mullioned and transomed windows is to the right. The rebuild service block to the left has 1980s castellations but incorporates fabric from the original 1878 construction, including a moulded doorframe and plank door. The left return and south elevations also contain mullioned windows. The garden (south) elevation features a projecting gable and a canted bay window, which provides light to the drawing room.

Internally, original joinery remains, including panelled doors with chamfered stopped detail, window shutters, skirting boards, and a stick baluster staircase with chamfered balusters and a moulded handrail. Plaster cornices also survive; the chimney pieces are later 20th-century replacements. Original 1878 floor tiling is present in the porch.