Prospect House and attached walls and railings

Prospect House is a late 18th-century house, built in 1728, with alterations made in the early 19th century and around 1860. It is located on the west side of Combe Street, Chard, and is accompanied by attached walls and railings. The house is constructed of limestone rubble to the half basement, with Flemish bond brickwork above. It features a Ham Hill stone doorcase and platband, and a slate roof with a crested ridge, brick stacks and fretted bargeboards to the gable ends. The building follows a double-depth central-staircase plan with extensions to both sides and the rear.

The two-storey house has a half basement and a symmetrical three-window front, with an additional small margin-pane sash window to the left extension, which has a 1930s door below. The front extensions have lean-to roofs, the right-hand one being windowless to the front. A wide flight of steps leads to a six-panel door within a Tuscan-style doorcase. All windows have flat, gauged brick arches, forward frames, and late 19th-century two-over-two-pane sash windows with horns. Extending to the rear are two 18th-century rubble stone buildings with pantile roofs, which were used as workshops.

The interior staircase, likely altered around 1860, has bracketed ends, stick balusters, and plain newel posts. A front left ground-floor room contains a mid-19th-century black marble fireplace with a cast-iron arch plate register grate. The rear room to the left has a large rectangular fireplace with a stone lintel, surrounded by an 18th-century wooden surround with a beaded edge to the inside arris. A small aperture is present through the fireplace wall to the left. The front right ground-floor room features a black slate fire surround with painted marble panels. A first-floor room to the left has a mid-19th-century white marble fireplace with a cast-iron grate and a cast-iron ceiling rose. A late 16th-century reset panelled door leads to the attic. In the back room to the left, two large chamfered oak beams run from front to back; other ground floor ceilings are late 19th-century lath-and-plaster, covering original beams.

The attached walls and railings which form part of the listing are a coursed rubble stone wall with a pointed arch gate to the left, and have sweeping curves to the right return. The front has cast-iron gate and railings with a vine leaf pattern; the gate has been lowered since repairs. Deeds confirm a build date of 1728. Prospect House was the home of James Gillingham, a bootmaker who pioneered the manufacture of prosthetic limbs from the 1860s, and his workshops were situated in the rear extensions.