Bickham And Walls Enclosing Garden On North East Front

This is a manor house, likely incorporating elements from a medieval manor and chapel. The main structure dates to the 17th century, with a west wing added in the 18th century. The house was enlarged on its southwest front in the early 20th century and is now roughly rendered over rubble, with a plinth to the east wing and centre block, and slate roofs with overhanging eaves. Large external chimney stacks are present at the kitchen gable end and the west gable end, along with early 20th-century roughcast stacks. The house has an irregular U-shaped plan, likely originally a three-cell design with a cross passage and cross wing. A corridor was inserted on the northwest front when the entrance was moved, and a further cross wing was added to balance the design. The northwest front has two storeys with an attic, arranged as a 2:3:2 bay layout with an irregularly gabled centre and wings. Glazed roundels are set into the gable ends, and sash windows with 12 panes fill the majority of openings. An empty semi-circular headed niche sits above the central entrance, which has a four-panel door with raised surrounds. A flat-roofed porch with shaped brackets and a dentil moulded cornice is present. A catslide roof with a dormer extends over a two-bay loggia to the right, with a similarly gabled and fenestrated return. The rear elevation has a 2:5 bay layout with irregularly placed 12-pane sash windows, and an 18th-century door leading to the cross passage. The interior features a dogleg staircase with a mid-to-late 18th-century Chinese Chippendale style dog-gate and a short section of balustrade between colonnettes. There is a moulded surround to a semi-circular arched opening at the stairwell, and reset 16th-century panelling with a frieze in an adjacent room. A garden wall, including a two-bay structure abutting the house, is built of red sandstone rubble, standing approximately 3 metres high. The house was the home of the Elsworth family, one of whom, Richard, endowed the nearby school (not listed), commemorated by a plaque on the subsequently altered building. The chest tomb of William Withycombe of Bickham is located in the churchyard of St John the Baptist, Carhampton.