Shawford House

Shawford House is a middle-sized country house, dating to 1685, with significant alterations and extensions in 1911-13 by Jewell, and subsequent internal repairs following a fire around the 1970s. The building is constructed of ashlar stone with brick stacks, and has old plain tile roofs.

The original house is a late 17th-century structure of seven bays, with the end two bays projecting forward on one side and the central three bays projecting on the other. An 18th-century addition extends the left end of the entrance front, along with further service buildings and a ballroom wing projecting forward from the right end, all by Jewell.

The entrance front is two storeys and attic, set on a raised plinth. The seven-bay design features projecting end bays. A single-storey infill of the 20th century sits between the end bays. The central bay has double doors within an architrave, flanked by plain pilasters supporting console brackets with a segmental pediment. Narrow eight-pane sashes are on either side of the doors, with a balustrade above. The first floor of the centre bays has round-headed twelve-pane sashes on either side of a square window. Wings incorporate twelve-pane sashes, a first-floor string course featuring a bullseye window centrally, and slight architraves framing all openings. A coved timber eaves cornice tops the building. The hipped roof has two three-light hipped dormers in the centre, and one on each wing, with end stacks. Adjacent to the original house, a ballroom, built in an Edwardian style, extends to the right. It is linked by a one-and-a-half-storey quadrant to a five-bay Doric loggia along the side of the ballroom.

The garden front is two storeys and attic, with a seven-bay design where the central three bays project. A raised plinth is rusticated with quoins. The central doorway is above three steps, with half-glazed double doors in a slightly lugged architrave with a pediment cutting through the first-floor string. The ground floor has two-light casements in architraves on either side of the doorway, and the first floor has eleven twelve-pane sashes in architraves. A bullseye window with a wrought iron screen is set above the string between the side bays. A coved timber eaves cornice and a hipped roof, with overhanging centre bays and three three-light hip-roofed dormers, complete the appearance. Ridge stacks flank the centre bays, with end stacks. A low, two-storey, five-bay stone addition is set to the left, running onto the wall of a service courtyard designed by J.D. Coleridge in 1908.

The interior was damaged by fire in the 1960s. The dining room contains a 16th-century chimneypiece and 17th-century panelling. The library features a mid-18th-century marble chimneypiece with a timber mantle.