Oriel House Paradise Point Paradise Point and Oriel House Including Front Boundary Wall

Details

DARTMOUTH

SX8850 WARFLEET ROAD, Warfleet 673-1/7/301 (East side) 23/10/72 Paradise Point and Oriel House including front boundary wall (Formerly Listed as: WARFLEET Rowensbury)

GV II

Formerly known as: Ravensbury WARFLEET ROAD Warfleet. Large house, the former billiard room block now divided off as Oriel House. c1855, the Oriel House part was a c1900 addition. Flemish-bond yellow brick with minimal Bathstone dressings, some painted brick on the service side, and some slate-hanging; projecting end, rear lateral and axial brick stacks have chimneyshafts with old pots. PLAN: Double-depth, 2 rooms wide, with central entrance passage and main stairs off the right side. Principal rooms on left and to rear, service rooms to right. The former billiard room extension, now Oriel House, projects forward from right corner. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys with attics; Oriel House of 2 storeys. Multi-gabled elevations. Entrance front an asymmetrical 1:2:1-window range, all openings under flat brick arches, mostly narrow horned 8-pane sashes, but first-floor right a horned 12-pane sash. Central bay broken forward with canted corners to first floor and parapet above; it contains doorway to right flanked by pilaster buttresses and contains a fielded 6-panel door under a plain overlight. Another doorway in right bay has wide elliptical arch and contains a similar door with side lights and large fanlight with intersecting glazing bars. Gable-ended roof with central gable, all with open scroll-pattern bargeboards which are continued under the eaves as a valance and incorporate bold pendants and finials at each apex, corner and valley. Other sides in same style. Left end a 3-window range containing mostly horned 12-pane sashes and a canted bay ground-floor right. Timber verandah and balcony round northern corner with French windows behind; 3 bays each side on square posts with moulded capitals to low Tudor arches and console brackets to balcony floor, ground floor glazed and each bay 3 lights with horizontal panes below clerestorey with vertical glazing bars, and verandah with a simple patterned balustrade. Rear includes another French window to left of the verandah and another canted bay ground-floor left. Right end slate-hung, less regular, with projecting service block containing casement windows. Former billiard room block, Oriel House, is a c1900 version of the same style, much modernised in the C20. It features a first-floor oriel window, round-headed doorway, C20 twelve-pane probably-original sashes without glazing bars, glazed ridge and slate-hanging to rear. INTERIOR: Not inspected, but noted as having stick-baluster open-string stair, panelled doors and original chimneypieces. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Tall stone rubble wall alongside the road is probably original; it includes a round-headed gateway close to the service end of the house. HISTORY: Ravensbury was built on the site of Paradise Fort. From 1861-78 it was the home of George Parker Bidder, The Calculating Boy, who was taken from the fairground and his education sponsored by wealthy patrons after which he prospered as an inventive entrepreneur, developing the steam trawler. For prints of the place before (1830) and after its erection (c1860) see sources. It occupies a prominent position and forms part of a group with other listed buildings around Warfleet Creek. (Freeman, Ray: Dartmouth and its Neighbours: Phillimore: 1990-: P.172-4/PL.23/PL.104).

Listing NGR: SX8815750481

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

387400

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Freeman, R, Dartmouth and its Neighbours, (1990), 172-4

End of official list entry

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