Northdown Hall (Part Of Stella Maris School)

BIDEFORD

SS4526 NORTHAM ROAD 842-1/5/207 (East side) 24/07/74 Northdown Hall (part of Stella Maris School) (Formerly Listed as: NORTHAM ROAD Northdown Hall at Stella Maris Convent)

GV II*

Large house, now part of school. Early C19. Solid rendered walls. Hipped slate roof. Rendered chimneys. Double-depth plan, 3 rooms wide, with with rear right service wing. On upper floor the front range has 4 rooms with a further room in the rear range to left of the staircase. 2 storeys with cellar; 4-window front facing north-east, the 2 middle windows set in a slight projection. Windows have barred sashes: 6 over 9 panes in ground storey, 6 over 6 panes above. Small top entablature with parapet. Matching sashes in upper-storey window of left gable-wall. Several others in rear wall, including the back stairs window with 12 over 12 panes. INTERIOR: well-preserved. Geometrical main stair with scrolled wrought-iron balusters on both sides. Mahogany handrails, voluted at the foot and surmounted by short iron lampstandards. Moulded nosings to treads; carved step-ends. Compartment has 6-panelled doors with panelled reveals in reeded architraves. Enriched cornices and ceiling-bands on both floors, the upper floor with a centre oval decorated with medallions and having a leaved chandelier boss. The 3 ground-floor front rooms have panelled shutters and reeded architraves to the windows. The middle and left-hand rooms have enriched cornices and ceiling-bands; also leaved chandelier bosses. Both have good white marble chimneypieces; that to left has vine tendrils and centre plaque with figures on the lintel, which is supported by caryatids; that in the middle has a surround carved with flowers and scrolls. The right-hand room is plainer, with only a moulded cornice. Upper-storey rooms have moulded cornices, panelled shutters and simple marble chimneypieces. Wooden back staircase has narrow open well, cut strings, thin square balusters, and handrail ramped up over column-newels. Charles Kingsley is believed to have written 'Westward Ho!' while he was tenant of Northdown Hall in 1854-5. (Rogers WH: Notes on Bideford (typescript): P.77, 78, 80).

Listing NGR: SS4511826980