Passaford House

Passaford House

Small country house, now a farmhouse, dating from the mid to late 18th century, probably a remodelling of an earlier building, with 19th-century additions. The exterior walls are rendered and comprise a mixture of cob and brick beneath a gable-ended slate roof. Two gable end stacks of dressed stone with projecting dripcoursestands at the front, and two brick gable end stacks serve the rear wings.

The front range is the part definitely dating to the 18th century. It contains a large entrance hall, originally divided by a staircase at the rear, though this has since been replaced by a fireplace positioned in front of a stair running along the rear wall. To the right of the entrance hall is a smaller room of good quality, probably a parlour or dining room, and to the left is a larger room. During recent refurbishment, evidence of a 17th-century fireplace was discovered in this larger room. Given the good quality of the front rooms, service rooms and kitchen quarters must have occupied the rear, and one or both of the two rear wings (positioned behind the right-hand end and centre of the main range) probably incorporate these, although neither exhibits features earlier than the 19th century. Local tradition holds that the house once extended further to the rear, enclosing a courtyard. Around the mid-19th century, a small parallel range was added behind the left-hand room.

The exterior presents two storeys beneath a modillion cornice. The front elevation is asymmetrical, comprising three bays with seven windows in a 2:3:2 arrangement; these are late 20th-century 2-light casements on the first floor. The middle bay projects slightly and is positioned to the right of centre. On the ground floor, French windows flank the central bay to left and right (late 20th-century insertions). A flat-roofed porch of circa mid-19th-century date stands at the centre of the middle bay, featuring a modillion cornice and a decoratively panelled door. A later 19th-century addition extends the right-hand end. The rear elevation comprises a wing to the left and at the centre, with a leanto between them, and a small range parallel to the front block at the right-hand end.

Internally, the smaller right-hand room contains an 18th-century chimneypiece, moved from the left-hand room. The chimneypiece has a frieze with a central reeded panel flanked by flower-heads and a dentilled cornice below the mantelpiece. A chair rail features similar reeded and flower decoration but probably dates from the 19th century. The walls display an egg and dart cornice with a delicate ceiling band above featuring trailing vine and floral design. A shallow arch at the rear of the room was originally intended for an alcove but has been converted into an opening to the adjoining room. The left-hand room contains a similar shallow arched recess in the wall dividing it from the entrance hall. The entrance hall formerly possessed an 18th-century moulded rib plaster ceiling with a decorative rococo-style ceiling centre. The staircase has been entirely altered but retains an 18th-century arch at its head with projecting imposts and a dropped keystone. The landing features a 19th-century balustrade, reportedly brought from another building, which is divided into sections by chamfered posts with ogee arches between them. Some 18th-century 2-panel doors survive on the first floor, with mainly late 18th-century or early 19th-century 6-panel doors on the ground floor at the front.