Bagtor House

Bagtor House is a large house of 16th-century origin, substantially remodelled in the very early 18th century, with minor 19th-century additions at the rear. It is constructed of stone rubble with slated roofs.

The building has an L-shaped plan. The front range, remodelled in the 18th century, is symmetrical and seven windows wide with a centre doorway approached by a flight of stone steps. The roof has deeply coved eaves-cornice and is nipped at each end, with small rendered chimneystack in each gable-end. The rear wing on the left-hand side is mainly 16th-century with a large projecting stone stack in its left wall. In its rear gable wall is another very large projecting stone stack with thatch weatherings and tapered top. A small 16th-century block is attached to the north-west corner, also with a projecting stone stack in its right-hand gable, the granite cap tapered and moulded.

The building is two storeys; some of the 19th-century additions are single-storeyed. Windows and doorway appear to have late 19th or early 20th-century details. The windows have mullioned-and-transomed wood casements, probably imitating the original casements but with moulded frames and higher transoms. The doorway has panelled double doors with fanlight over, flanked by panelled pilasters and entablature in early 19th-century manner. The rear wing has 19th-century wood casement windows with glazing-bars on both sides, except for the right-hand second-storey window facing the courtyard, which has a lightly moulded mullioned-and-transomed wood casement of the early 18th century. In the right-hand wall of the courtyard, where an old lean-to formerly stood, are four small rectangular recesses, sometimes thought to be bee-boles but more likely to be poultry roosts.

The interior of the front range includes complete sets of raised bolection-moulded panelling in both ground-storey rooms, in the second-storey room over the entrance-hall and in the small dressing-room adjoining it on the left. The panelling is in two heights with moulded dado-rail, except for the main second-storey room which has a third set of small panels at the top. The right-hand ground-storey room, which appears to have been the most important, has a wooden bolection-moulded chimneypiece with pulvinated frieze and moulded cornice; this was brought back from a room in the rear wing by the present owner. Doorways at either side and in the opposing wall have bolection-moulded wood architraves and doors with six raised-and-fielded ovolo-moulded panels. The rear wall has an open-fronted segmental-headed recess with panelled back and shaped shelves. Window shutters have raised-and-fielded ovolo-moulded panels. Detail in other panelled rooms is similar, but with simple moulded architraves to the doors. A white marble bolection-moulded chimneypiece in the left-hand ground-storey room was brought from a house in Hereford. The right-hand second-storey room has two heights of raised-and-fielded ovolo-moulded panelling and a dentilled cornice. The left-hand second-storey room has a simple box-cornice without panelling, although it is possible that this has been boarded in.

The entrance-hall has three doorways with eared architraves, two of them within a 20th-century inserted lobby with an imitation 18th-century doorway of the same type. In the rear wall the wide entrance to the main staircase has a tall round-arched opening to the left, with moulded architrave and keyblock, and raised-and-fielded ovolo-moulded panelling to the right. The floor above has moulded beams and joists of mid-16th century, the joists with run-out stops. The main stair is of wood with an open well, cut strings with shaped step-ends, turned balusters, and a moulded handrail ramped up over square newels. The 18th-century back stair has flat shaped wood balusters of sinuous profile, square newels with moulded caps, and a moulded handrail.

In the rest of the rear wing, the two farthest ground-storey rooms have chamfered upper-floor beams with step-stops. The kitchen has a wide gable-fireplace with canted sides and chamfered wood lintel with step-stops. At the back on the left side is an oven with brick domed roof; the opening has a stone frame with curved head. On the right side is a 19th-century cloam oven with a brick surround. The room nearest the main range has a fireplace in the side-wall with hollow-moulded granite jambs and a later curved lintel of granite. The room over the kitchen, reputedly the birthplace of John Ford the early 17th-century dramatist, has moulded late 16th or early 17th-century panelling on all but the rear wall; this was also panelled until the mid-20th century. It has a gable-fireplace with chamfered wood lintel having convex stops. The stair turret is reputed to have had stone steps until replaced by wood in the 20th century. At the stairhead is a wood rail with flat column-shaped balusters and a moulded handrail. A slit window in the right-hand wall is blocked. The one-room block at the north-west corner has a blocked fireplace with heavy granite lintel; a large piece of late 16th or early 17th-century panelling lies loose against the wall. The room above has a square-headed late 16th or early 17th-century fireplace with ovolo-moulded jambs and granite lintel. The roof of the main range has trusses with the collar pegged to the face of the principal rafters, probably 18th or early 19th-century; the roof of the rear wing is 20th-century.

The owner and occupier at the beginning of the 18th century was Thomas Tothill. The gatepiers to the east entrance, the former home farmhouse (Bagtor Barton) and its outbuildings are separately listed and form an excellent group with Bagtor House.