Ringslade And Attached Walls Railings Gate Piers And Outbuildings

Ringslade is a farmhouse with attached walls, railings, gate piers and outbuildings, located on the east side of Ringslade Road in Newton Abbot. The house dates from the 16th and 17th centuries and was altered around 1730, 1800 and 1900.

The building is constructed of painted roughcast with 20th-century timber-frame decoration to the porch. The roof is slate with external stacks to the left and rear, one ridge stack to the inside right and one at the junction of the porch.

The plan follows a 3-bay through-passage arrangement with a rear lateral stack to the central hall and left and right axial stacks. A 19th-century projecting left-of-centre 2-storey porch has been added, along with a large single-storey rear outshut, probably early 19th century, constructed with a cob wall supporting a corrugated-iron roof. A 19th-century L-plan rear left wing completes the composition.

The exterior is 2 storeys with a 5-window range. The right-hand bay is thought to have originally been a farm building, converted to accommodation in the early 18th century. The windows are 19th-century 4/4-pane and 6/6-pane sashes, with 20th-century 4-light casements to the ground floor. The 19th-century porch features late 19th-century mock timber-framing to the first floor. The rear left wing is rendered to the front block, while the rear single-storey block is of stone rubble with slate, forming an L-plan that bounds part of the rear yard.

The interior contains notable features throughout. The kitchen to the left has granite-lined jambs and lintel with stopped ovolo moulding to an open fire, and a Devon limestone slab floor. To the rear is an 18th-century door of 2 wide planks leading to a cupboard under a straight staircase against the rear wall. The passage has a cream limestone floor and spans the front between the two end rooms before turning to the rear to form the through passage.

The central room features a late 19th-century red and black marble fireplace with an external stack; a former fireplace to the right-hand internal wall is blocked. The right-hand room contains early 18th-century features, including a fireplace of pine with an eared architrave and dentil cornice. Within the thickness of the front wall is a semicircular-plan shelved recess with moulded architrave. A glazed 20th-century door to the right return is flanked by 6/6-pane sash windows with raised and fielded panels to the shutters.

The main early 19th-century staircase is approached through a semi-elliptical arch to the rear right of the passage. The low ceiling height was increased by raising the floor of the landing above by 2 steps; the underside is plastered as a quarter dome. The staircase is open-well and open-string with a wreathed rail and curtail step. The 17th-century first-floor 4-light stair window has timber mullions and 19th- or 20th-century leading. At the top left of the stairs is a small closet with an 18th-century door with L-hinges and raised and fielded panels. Each return of the closet has a small glazed window of 6 panes with early 19th-century lamb's tongue glazing bars.

The central first-floor room contains an early 18th-century fireplace with an eared architrave and hob grate, the space between filled with fine blue-and-white majolica tiles depicting biblical scenes in the Chinese style. The first-floor room to the right has a cupboard with 18th-century L-hinges in the thickness of the wall directly above the recess to the ground-floor room. The first floor of the porch has circa 1900 fireplaces backing onto the ridge stack.

The house was re-roofed in the 19th and 20th centuries with softwood trusses. The 19th-century rear wing contains a pump and stone sink, an open fire with an iron support to a segmental arch and space for a former copper.

To the left front northwest corner is a 5-bay rubblestone barn, likely 18th century, with a hipped slate roof. The front entrance has a high wide segmental arch over wide-planked double doors with chamfered rails. A smaller door to the rear is of 2 wide planks joined on the outside by chamfered vertical stiles and on the inside by chamfered rails with a massive iron lock. The barn has an early 19th-century pegged collar truss roof.

To the right of the house is a garden approximately 40 metres square enclosed by a rubblestone wall approximately 4 metres high. A hipped-roofed privy on a corner close to the house has 2 seats and a space for a former child's seat.

The forecourt is enclosed by a plinth with 19th-century spear-head railings flanking a gate and square gate piers.