Chalford Place

SO 8802-8902 CHALFORD LONDON ROAD (off south side)

13/72 Chalford Place (previously listed as The Company Arms) 28.6.60

GV II*

Detached house. Mid C16, enlarged mid-late C17. South front rebuilt c1710. C19 and C20 alterations. Random and coursed rubble and ashlar limestone; ashlar chimneys; stone slate roof. North side 2-storey with attic; south side 3-storey. Two-storey additions to each end. South front: asymmetrical but presumably intended to be balanced. Part projects forward to left of centre, 2-window fenestration to ground and middle floor, all 12-pane sashes with thick ovolo glazing bars in openings with shouldered and eared keyed architraves; bull-nosed sills. Keystones linked with plain floor-level bands. Tripartite upper floor windows with 3-centred arched central sash. On left side eaves-mounted chimney with 3 diagonal shafts. Left part of facade has plain 3-light window to each floor, that to upper floor with arched lights; mullions extended to form panels between floors. Right of projection is set of 4 sashes set one above each other with bull- nosed dividing sills. Doorway to right with segmental pediment on shaped brackets. Part of C17 wing projects forward to right, roof half hipped and upper floor sash added in c1710 alterations, timber casement and doorway below, both with timber lintels. Main roof hipped with moulded eaves coving,keystones of upper windows carried into this. West end: refaced in ashlar, blocked upper floor level doorway with flat hood on brackets added to allow storage in large attics. Eaves-mounted chimney to left with central pilaster strips. Blocked round-arched doorway below vehicle passage roof. North side: 3 full gables, 2 to left representing original house. C19 restored mullioned casements with hood moulds, upper floor and attic windows on line of gables. Indications of blocked openings in gable apexes. Tall chimney at ridge - roof of C18 south range rising behind. Interior: large fireplaces, 2 with bread ovens, that at west end with adjacent stone spiral stair. Beams have ogee stops. C18 staircase removed in C19 alteration. Unusual roof structure due to retention of half of earlier roof over north side of building, extended collars cut through. High collar roof on south side with arched bracing. The Hawksmoor-like south front seems to be part of an elaborate rebuilding and enlargement, left incomplete due to sudden changes of ownership. Recorded as an inn by 1803 after construction of nearby Thames and Severn Canal. (J. Shipman, Chalford Place: a History of the House and its Clothier Families, 1979).

Listing NGR: SO8918602473