Baledmund House

Baledmund House

Baledmund House is a substantial 3-storey traditional house, probably of early 19th century origin, with a significant 2-storey and attic Scots Baronial style wing designed by John Leonard and dated 1895. The building is harled with red sandstone detailing including a doorway, oriels, corbels, crenellations and pediments. Hoodmoulds feature throughout, with stone transoms and mullions to the windows.

The principal south elevation presents a 3-bay composition of the original house to the right, fronted by a full-width verandah on square-section timber piers with decorative braces. The ground floor contains 2 closely aligned windows and a 2-leaf part-glazed door, formerly a window, to the left, with 3 windows to each floor above. The advanced wing to the left of centre is 4 bays in extent, displaying a crowstepped gable and a canted oriel window in the gablehead with a small bartizan window to its left angle. A slightly recessed bay to the left has windows and a ball-finialled dormer window breaking the eaves. The outer left angle is corbelled to square with a steeply pitched finialled dormer window above. A corbelled and crenellated tower canted to the outer right carries a hoodmoulded part-glazed timber door to the ground and windows above. The return to the right features a crowstepped gable to the left with door and window to the ground, a first-floor window with a dated monogrammed panel to the right, and a further window in the gablehead. A bay to the right displays a dominant 4-light transomed projecting stair window, giving way above to a stone-pedimented and finialled dormer window breaking the eaves.

The west elevation shows various windows and a 3-bay elevation of the later wing to the right with a crenellated porch at the centre, a narrow light to the right and door on the return. Above is a narrow stone-pedimented and finialled dormer window. The flanking gables are crowstepped, that to the left featuring a heavy hoodmould over a later tripartite window. A narrow courtyard lies to the left, with a lower gabled bay of the original house beyond at the outer left.

The east elevation presents a blank gabled face of the original house. The north rear elevation is rambling in composition, with projecting piended single and gabled 2-storey bays to the left of centre and 2 tall stacks breaking the eaves to the right. The stack to the right has a full-height projecting chimney breast.

Throughout the building the windows retain multi-pane glazing patterns in timber sash and case frames. The windows to the later wing feature plate glass lower sashes and a stair window. The roof is covered in graded grey slates, while the stacks are of coped ashlar and harled construction with cans. Cast-iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers serve the building.

The interior retains a good late 19th century decorative scheme. Plasterwork cornices are plain and decoratively moulded; panelled shutters and brass sash lifts are present throughout. The hall is segmental-arched, leading to a stairhall containing a cantilevered, timber-balustered dog-leg staircase with ball-finialled newels and a landing with semi-elliptical arch. The dining room to the west has corniced architraved doorpieces and a carved timber fireplace with fluted pilasters and bolection moulded frieze. The drawing room features a carved timber fireplace with fluted Ionic columns, cast-iron grate with fluted brass mountings, and a black marble fireplace in the play room of the original house. A toilet to the northeast retains Edwardian fittings, including a china handbasin marked 'Doulton & Co, Lambeth, London' and cistern marked 'The Edina Cistern' mounted on decorative cast-iron brackets.

Associated with the house is a small private cemetery enclosed by ironwork railing with decorative finials and 2-leaf gates. Steps lead up to the burial area inscribed "This burying ground was made by JGF in 1888 and reconstructed by MDF & ESF in 1924". The cemetery contains 6 gravestones, including an obelisk memorial to James Ferguson of Baledmund, who died 21 December 1887, and a shallow relief cross carved into rough stone bearing the tablet "IN LOVING MEMORY OF GRIZELDA MORNA".

The grounds include a walled garden of coped rubble construction. Low coped rubble boundary walls are punctuated by dome-pedimented circular rubble gatepiers, the western carrying an armorial panel and the eastern a monogrammed panel. Two-leaf ironwork gates provide access.