Ford Park Including Terrace Along Front

Ford Park is an artists' house designed by Robert Stark as his own residence in the late 19th century. It stands on a terrace cut into a steep slope and is built mostly in roughcast with some exposed granite rubble and rusticated granite quoins. The granite rubble stacks are topped with cream-coloured machine brick chimney shafts, and the roof is slate.

The plan is basically L-shaped but singular in layout. The main room (drawing room or principal parlour) occupies the angle of the wings and projects forward eastwards a short distance, with a bay window projecting diagonally from the south-east corner. To the north of this is the east-facing main front overlooking the valley, which contains from left to right the main stair behind a lobby called the dining room, a small study in front of the entrance lobby, and at the end a large north-facing studio. Behind the main room there is a parlour and service rooms which return northwards a short distance at the back. Most rooms are heated by axial stacks.

The building is two storeys with an attic room over the studio. The exterior is dominated by the two-storey bay across the south-eastern corner. On the ground floor is a large four-light granite window with chamfered mullions and side lights, and a matching timber casement on the first floor. The first floor has a timber balcony supported on granite corbels with exposed joists and a spat baluster balustrade. Plain corner posts rise to carry the sprocketed eaves of the hipped roof, which extend over the balcony. The ridges finish at the eaves with wrought iron coiled finials.

The east block has a two-window front of casements with a third to the studio. Those on the first floor have gables over. A four-bay verandah across the front is carried on granite posts. The south front contains casements with rusticated granite architraves, and the parlour here has a four-light window with chamfered mullions and plain hoodmould. The north end of the studio has an enormous full-height six-light window with slender timber mullions and transoms. The gable above is weatherboarded and contains a canted bay window. A shelter to the rear of the studio and main door was originally open and carried on granite posts, but the sides have since been filled. All windows are plate glass.

The interior is deliberately plain and largely unaltered. Where there is detail, it is Tudor in style. The staircase has an open well, newel posts with moulded caps and spat balusters. The reception room is the finest space, with exposed joists, a coved cornice and arch-headed niches across each corner. The walls have plain wainscotting and the north wall has pilasters flanking replacement bookshelves. The Tudor-style fireplace of reconstituted stone is secondary. The floor is parquet. The spacious, full-height studio is particularly impressive.

Across the front of the house is a terrace made from blocks of granite including steps down to the lawn below.

Robert Stark was an artist and sculptor working at the turn of the 20th century. He built the house for himself and laid out fine landscaped grounds which are almost Alpine in character, with herbaceous planting overlooking a small lake surrounded by woodland. His daughter Freya, the famous travel writer, spent her early years at Ford Park and remembered the place with affection in her autobiography.