Lifton Park

Details

SX 38 SE LIFTON

5/118 Lifton Park - II

House and ruins to the east. Circa 1815 for William Arundell of Kenegie in Cornwall who inherited the Lifton estate in 1775. Alterations of 1857 for Henry Bradshaw who acquired the estate in 1844. Stuccoed stone with some stone dressings, and slate roofs with rendered stacks. An extensive Gothick house of 1815 partly remodelled in a more archaeological but still Gothick style in 1857. The west block survives but to the east the house is ruinous. The original build seems to have had a west entrance and a sequence of principal rooms facing south and opening into one another, the now ruinous central room, said to have been an orangery on the south side being single-storey with 3 tall arched Gothick windows with timber tracery between the slightly advanced blocks to the west and east. The exterior alterations of 1857 seem to have been confined to the entrance front at the west which was refenestrated with stone traceried windows and given a battlemented parapet and stepped and Dutch gables. In the circa 1950s the east part of the house became ruinous, renovations in progress on the west block at the time of survey, 1985. The west block 1815 with alterations of 1857 (dated rain water head). Stone stuccoed and blocked out and rusticated with various unarchaeological designs. Slate roof with stepped gables at ends. Rendered stacks with moulded caps and tall ornamental chimney pots. Double depth plan with rooms leading directly off a large entrance hall. 2 storeys. 8 bay symmetrical front with central embattled porte- cochere with flying diagonal buttresses to the front and double chamfered arches carried on short shafts. Front left and right projections have Dutch gables to the front crowned with crosses and slender setback buttresses with set-offs. The battlemented parapet to the central 5 bays rises as a stepped gable, crowned with a cross above the middle bay. Stone Perpendicular style stone traceried windows throughout, 1-, 2- and 3-light with cusping in the heads of the main lights. Tall arched doorway with 2-leaf door to main entrance. Adjoining at the north of the entrance front is 1 bay which preserves the 1815 detail. A single-storey embattled projection has a 2-light Gothick arched timber traceried casement in a rectangular architrave. The south side of the west block has 2 stepped gables to the south and 1 to the east but preserves its 1815 fenestration of 2-light timber traceried casements in rectangular architraves, the ground floor windows being French windows. Interior Plaster vault to porch, presumably of 1815. Most of the joinery and cornices also date from 1815 including large 2-leaf doors with Gothick panelling. Fine hall fireplace surround has moulded stone pinnacles, 1 finial missing, and a cast iron fireplace corbelled out on Gothic heads. The principal staircase is dog- leg and supported on iron columns with stone stairs and paired cast iron balusters. A second timber stair has balusters with Gothick detailing and a trail of foliage carved on the newel post. The east block 1815. Stuccoed stone with vermiculated rustication, rendered stacks with moulded caps. Roofless and forming a picturesque ruin to the east of the house. The remains of the central 3-bay room on the south side has an embattled parapet and tall arched Gothick windows with timber tracery and buttresses with set-offs between. To the east of this the plan seems to have been an irregular picturesque block with canted bays and 2-light Gothick arched timber traceried casements in rectangular architraves. William Arundell is said to have rebuilt an earlier house on the site, but there is no sign of a pre 1815 core. John B. Wollocombe, From Morn till Eve (1908).

Listing NGR: SX3808284562

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

92364

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Wollocombe, J, From Morn till Eve, ()

End of official list entry

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