Puddicombe House

SX 79 SW DREWSTEIGNTON

5/58 Puddicombe House

II

House. 1802, according to date on water tank, refurbished circa 1850-60. Plastered stone rubble up to first floor level and cob above; stone rubble stack with plastered brick chimneyshafts which have soffit-moulded coping; slate roof with crested ridge tiles. Plan: house faces south-east and is built across the hillslope. The main block has a double depth plan with a front and rear room served by end stack either side of a central through passage. The front section of the passage is an entrance hall containing a geometric stair. The principal rooms are those on the front and service rooms to rear. On the left end, set back from the front, is a 1-room plan parlour block with an end stack and set back from the front of this and projecting to rear at right angles is a low service wing. Main house is 2 storeys with attics. Exterior: main block has a symmetrical 3-window front of large C20 casements without glazing bars, replacements of similar mid C19 windows some of which survive elsewhere. Central doorway contains mid C19 part-glazed and panelled double doors with panelled reveals behind a possibly early C19 Doric porch with fluted pilasters, square-section columns, moulded entablature, low pitched roof and sitting on a flight of limestone steps. Plain eaves and roof is hipped each end and contains 2 dormer windows with hipped roofs. This main front has lost its stucco detail but this survives on the rear and ancillary wings. There the plaster is lightly incised as ashlar and there are flat corner pilasters and eaves cornice. The windows have moulded stucco architraves and their sills are supported on shaped consoles. The 4-window rear is not symmetrical. Rear doorway has a gabled porch with segmental outer arch with a similar moulded architrave and there is a moulded stucco laurel wreath above. Good interior is little modernised since the C19 and includes some high quality, joinery detail. For instance the entrance hall contains a timber arcade in front of the open string geometric stair with stick balusters, shaped stair brackets, turned newel posts and mahogany handrail. The main rooms have fielded panel doors, moulded plaster cornices and some have Adams-style chimneypieces. Puddicombe House is an attractive landscape feature overlooking a broad valley in the direction of Drewsteignton village.

Listing NGR: SX7259692018