Bayford House

Details

TL 30 NW BAYFORD ASHENDENE ROAD (West side)

3/7 No. 44 (Bayford House) 24.11.66 (formerly listed as No 44 (Bayford House and Stables)) GV II*

Large house. Late medieval rear wing incorporating rafters from C13/C14, hall, early C17 front range heightened to 3 storeys in early C18, enlarged to W, refronted and given S service range (the stables parallel with this have date 1729), early C19 staircase, porch, ground floor windows, and service extension. Timber frame in rear wing, largely replaced or encased in red brick walls of front range. S wing has show front of plum red brick with lighter red dressings. Stone coping to parapet of main house. Steep old red tile pitched roofs to rear wing and rear slope of S service wing, parallel hipped slate roofs to main house hidden by parapet and front slope of service wing. Large 3-storeys and cellar, 7 windows wide house in own grounds facing E with old 2-storeys and attics rear wing at SW from which a lower 2-storeys, 5-bays service wing extends to S. Symmetrical E front to main block with raised band below 2nd floor windows, recessed sash windows with flat gauged arches, plastered reveals and 3/3 panes on 2nd floor, 6/6 on 1st floor and flanking the central entrance, but the outer pairs of ground floor windows replaced by single 6/9 panes sashes in early C19, the sills at floor level. 8-panels fielded door in pilastered screen with panelled reveals, sheltered by a trellised porch with tented roof. A pilaster buttress at the NE angle marks where the N end wall appears to have been rebuilt in early C19 incorporating chimneys and a central broad recess as if intended for a stair window. The polite W facade of the S service wing has a plinth, platband, and parapet, flat gauged arches and flush-box sash windows, those on ground floor of 6/6 panes, those on 1st floor of 4/8 panes except for a triple sash window replacing the pair next the main house. Blocked windows 2nd from S on ground floor and 3rd on 1st floor. The old-rear wing also retains early C18 flush box sashes, here with segmental tops, 6/6 panes and heavy ovolo-moulded glazing bars. Ovolo moulded shutters remain on 1st floor of front range but sashes replaced later. The staircase rises in a separate structure in the NW angle with the rear wing. The interior of the main block is in 3 cells, from N to S, the drawing room (formerly the parlour), the entrance hall (formerly the hall or principal room), and the dining room (probably former service rooms). A very large chimney stack occupies much space in the entrance hall backing onto the drawing room (which now has its own chimney in the N end wall). This internal stack will have served the 2 rooms of the former 2-storeys C17 house. A screen of Doric columns at the rear gives onto the staircase, now early C19 but presumably on the site of older stairs. A similar columnar screen shields the buffet area at the W end of the dining room to the S and superimposed columns or features continue up through the 2 floors above it. The structural line marked by the columns is presumably that of the rear wall of the C17 house. Smoke-blackened rafters with lap joints re-used in roof of rear wing, which is unusually wide and may represent an aisled hall with later floors inserted. Staircase has balustrade at top c.1700 with heavy moulded rail and spiral fluted vases as pedestals to turned baluster shafts like Doric columns. Turned newel. In front block drawing room has C18 foliated plaster cornice. Dining room has leopards' heads and egg-and-dart bedmould to cornice. C18 fireplaces. Moulded plank C17 door in attic. Art Nouveau fireplace on ground floor of rear wing. (RCHM Typescript).

Listing NGR: TL3060707980

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

160615

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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