Old Ford

Old Ford is a detached house in Bideford, a well-preserved example of a medieval hall-and-cross-wing house, a type that is very rare in Devon, particularly at vernacular level.

The building probably began as a gentleman's house in the late medieval period, possibly the 14th century, and was later converted to a farmhouse in the 19th century. It was formerly known as Ford Farm. The structure evolved significantly over time: a late medieval cross-wing was added to the original hall; the building was extended in the late 16th century; and the cross-wing was remodelled with further extensions in the late 17th or very early 18th century.

The building is constructed of stone rubble with a slate roof; the cross-wing roof is hipped at the front. Chimneys include old red-brick examples on the left gable-wall of the hall and on both gable-walls of the cross-wing, together with a 16th-century stone-rubble chimney with a tapered cap on the right gable-wall.

The plan comprises a single-storey late medieval hall (now lofted) with a through-passage at the right-hand end. To the right, separated by a thick wall, stands the late medieval cross-wing, which projects front and back and contains a 17th or 18th-century staircase with a contemporary parlour in front and a service-room behind. A rear addition, probably from the 17th or 18th century, served as a kitchen. On the right-hand side, at right-angles to the cross-wing, is a late 16th-century parlour-range, which was probably converted to a salting-house in the 19th century. To the left of the hall, beyond a rebuilt gable-wall, stands a converted barn of 16th or 17th-century date.

The hall is single-storey with a loft; the remainder of the building is two-storey with a semi-basement below the front of the cross-wing. The hall features a doorway to the right with a 2-panelled 18th-century door. A sash-window to the left is set in a partly-blocked opening and has 12 over 8 panes. Above the doorway is a gabled dormer with plain bargeboards and a 2-light wood casement with 2 panes per light. A buttress is positioned at the left-hand end. The converted barn to the left has 2 windows per storey, all with segmental stone arches and fixed 4-pane wood sashes. The cross-wing has a buttress at each side of the gable, a blocked window in each storey, and a plank door in the basement with a plain wood frame.

Sash-windows appear in both side-walls and in the front of the 16th-century addition; the wider ones have margin-panes. Upper-storey windows in the cross-wing rise slightly above eaves-level and have pent-roofs. The rear wall of the hall contains a 4-light limestone window with flat-splay mullions (2 missing) and a straight hood-mould, probably partly restored in the 19th century. The rear wall of the cross-wing has a 2-light wood-mullioned window with ogee mullions and later 9-paned wood casements. In the gable is a stone plaque inscribed "WC 1733". Flanking a chimneybreast in the gable-wall of the 16th-century addition are 2 second-storey slit windows with sharply-pointed openings cut from single pieces of wood.

The interior of the hall retains a late medieval smoke-blackened roof with 2 raised-cruck trusses on wooden pads. The trusses feature chamfered arch-braces, cranked collars, butt-purlins, a square-set ridge, and windbraces; the left truss has blades with tops scarfed above the collar. At the passage-end is a stud-and-panel screen with chamfered studs and diagonal-cut stops. Above it is a chamber projecting into the hall, fitted with a late 16th or early 17th-century ovolo-moulded bressumer with step-stops. The rear wall contains a fireplace with a cambered chamfered wood lintel, and the left gable-wall has a large later segmental-headed fireplace.

The through-passage has a rear doorway with a boxed segmental-headed arch. In the right wall is an unglazed borrowed light into the service-room, a 2-light ovolo-moulded wood frame with original lattice-work.

The cross-wing contains a 17th or 18th-century wood staircase accessed from the passage, with a single flight branching off left and right at the top. The staircase features closed strings, turned balusters, a moulded handrail, and square newels with flat moulded caps; against the wall at the top is a moulded skirting with an ogee-moulded profile to match each tread.

The ground-floor front room of the cross-wing is completely panelled in the 17th or 18th-century style, with raised bolection-moulded panels. A wood bolection-moulded chimneypiece features a 19th-century enriched iron grate, and there are 2 round-headed cupboards with shaped shelves. Shutters with ovolo-moulded raised-and-fielded panels and a coved cornice complete the room. The rear ground-floor room has only a plain unchamfered ceiling-beam.

The cross-wing roof is a lighter version of that over the hall, also with 2 trusses but without smoke-blackening. It features an angled ridge and bird's-mouthed collars forming intermediate trusses. The 16th-century addition has chamfered beams with scroll-stops and remains of a dado with a moulded rail and skirting. It contains a solid granite trough, probably for salting meat or fish, with 2 compartments. The room above has a late 16th-century stone chimneypiece with a Tudor arch, ogee, hollow and half-round mouldings and urn-stops. The frieze is decorated with roundels and lozenges filled with flowers and fleurs-de-lis. Original roof-trusses with straight feet survive.

The house contains several early doors, either with raised-and-fielded ovolo-moulded panels or simple vertical planks. The converted barn, which probably had a domestic function originally, has chamfered beams with step-stops and chamfered joists with run-out stops. Old roof-timbers include one blade of a raised cruck with threaded purlins.

Old Ford is believed to have adjoined an early fording-place on the River Torridge and has been suggested as the former Manor-house of the Grenville family.