Stoke House

Stoke House is a house built around 1810, featuring a rendered exterior that mimics ashlar over a brick structure. It has a shallow pitched hipped slate roof behind a parapet without a cornice and brick stacks at the rear. The house is designed as a double pile and stands three storeys tall with three bays. The upper two storeys have full-height recessed segmental-headed panels that contain 12-pane sash windows on the second floor. The first floor has two pairs of French windows on the left, a central pair with a diamond-paned light above, and a 15-pane sash window on the right. The front is enhanced by a 7-bay wooden arcade with semi-circular headed arches, except for pointed arches in the outer bays and on the glazed returns, which feature circles in the spandrels. This arcade rests on a 5-bay semi-circular headed arched open loggia made of rendered brick, with square-headed returns and a central pair of half-glazed double doors flanked by two semi-circular headed blind niches. The left return has a moulded cornice below the parapet and irregular fenestration, including a two-storey canted bay towards the rear with 16-pane sash windows above 20th-century French windows. The interior has not been seen but is said to contain a good staircase. According to the current owners as of December 1984, the house was built for Lord Portman's agent. It occupies a prominent position on the hillside, overlooking the Vale of Taunton. At the time of the survey, the house was in poor condition.