Idsworth House

Idsworth House is a Neo-Jacobean mansion built in 1852 by William Burn, with subsequent additions in 1912 by Goodhart-Rendel. The house is constructed of red brick walls in Flemish bond, with Bath stone dressings. Features include a plinth, quoins, a first-floor cornice band, a parapet cornice and coping, and gables with finials and kneelers. The roof is steeply pitched slate, with prominent stone stacks.

The south-west front is near-symmetrical, two storeys and an attic, with a 2-3-2 window arrangement. The two western bays are slightly brought forward, with a larger dormer gable next to an end tower, which has an ogee lead roof, a cornice with a raised centre containing a cartouche, and a large stone clock face. The two eastern bays are also brought forward, with an inner small and outer large gable. A projecting section to the ground floor centre (added in 1912) features an elaborate Doric port-cochere with Roman arches within coupled ¾ columns, and an arched doorway. The windows are sash, with the 1912 additions incorporating large mullion and transom casements. Other features of 1912 include dated rainwater heads and a tile-hung parapet.

The south-east elevation exhibits similar detailing, with a 1-3-2 window arrangement. A projecting gable to the second bay contains a two-storeyed, half-octagonal, three-window bay. A rectangular ground-floor bay is positioned to the north, and a further projecting library unit of one storey, with similar style but larger features (of 1912), is located north of this.

The northern range continues in a similar style, incorporating the projecting library on the east side. It extends westward to include tall service wings of one and a half storeys with half-dormers. The eastern elevation of these wings forms the west side of the forecourt, with a 1-3-1 window arrangement, end gables (the northern gable linked to the house by a single-storeyed block, and the southern gable featuring a carriage arch, now filled). Further west are other service buildings, associated with a tall flint wall enclosing the kitchen garden. This wall is pierced by a carriage entrance flanked by piers. The former service ranges have been divided into dwellings.