Taynton House

Taynton House is a farmhouse dating back to the 17th century, originally built for the Holder family. It was altered and extended in the 18th century and again in the early 19th century. The house is constructed of plain render, mimicking ashlar, with a slate roof. It has an irregular L-shaped plan, incorporating a long rear wing, and a stair projection in the angle. The main entrance front has three gables, with a recessed centre. The left and centre sections have render over timber framing, while the right section is brick. A plain plinth runs along the base. The central gable features a two-light French door, raised one stone step and set beneath a transom and flat head. A three-bay, single-storey arcade is positioned centrally, also raised one step, with square columns and simple capitals, and a flat lintel with a heavy moulded edge to the porch roof. To the left of the French door is a three-light mullion and transom window; a double door, half-glazed with marginal lights above and a flush panel below, is located centrally, topped with a rectangular fanlight featuring curved glazing bars, all within panelled reveals with a moulded surround. The rear wall is blank to the right. The first floor has two-light casement windows with flat heads within each gable section, topped by gables with heavy verge moulding. A projecting chimney is visible on the left return, with a short return roof slope, and further chimneys are present on the ridge and right return. Y-tracery features on the stair windows behind the entrance.

The interior includes an entrance hall with six-panel doors, fluted architraves, lion-head corner paterae, and an echinus moulding. A large chimney-breast is on the right, with three elliptical arches leading to the rear of the hall. To the left is a staircase situated in a projection. An acanthus-leaf cornice adorns the room on the left, while the fireplace surround features lion-head corner paterae, a central scroll with trumpets, and a cast-iron fireplace. The ceilings of the front rooms on the first floor are coved along the sides, with slight moulding framing the flat centre. The first-floor ceiling was raised in the early 19th century, requiring the cutaway of truss tie beams and the bolting of collars above a square ridge. A blocked window is visible in the centre gable. The house originally had a timber-frame H or T-plan. The left wing was originally extended at least one bay further back; the centre was either at least one bay further to the right, or the brick projection on the right is a rebuild of a timber-framed wing of the same plan. The house is well documented in Holder papers, and forms a group with late 17th and early 18th century brick farm buildings.