Description

BIDEFORD

SS4526 NORTHAM ROAD 842-1/5/207 (East side) 24/07/74 Northdown Hall (part of Stella Maris School) (Formerly Listed as: NORTHAM ROAD Northdown Hall at Stella Maris Convent)

GV II*

Large house, now part of school. Early C19. Solid rendered walls. Hipped slate roof. Rendered chimneys. Double-depth plan, 3 rooms wide, with with rear right service wing. On upper floor the front range has 4 rooms with a further room in the rear range to left of the staircase. 2 storeys with cellar; 4-window front facing north-east, the 2 middle windows set in a slight projection. Windows have barred sashes: 6 over 9 panes in ground storey, 6 over 6 panes above. Small top entablature with parapet. Matching sashes in upper-storey window of left gable-wall. Several others in rear wall, including the back stairs window with 12 over 12 panes. INTERIOR: well-preserved. Geometrical main stair with scrolled wrought-iron balusters on both sides. Mahogany handrails, voluted at the foot and surmounted by short iron lampstandards. Moulded nosings to treads; carved step-ends. Compartment has 6-panelled doors with panelled reveals in reeded architraves. Enriched cornices and ceiling-bands on both floors, the upper floor with a centre oval decorated with medallions and having a leaved chandelier boss. The 3 ground-floor front rooms have panelled shutters and reeded architraves to the windows. The middle and left-hand rooms have enriched cornices and ceiling-bands; also leaved chandelier bosses. Both have good white marble chimneypieces; that to left has vine tendrils and centre plaque with figures on the lintel, which is supported by caryatids; that in the middle has a surround carved with flowers and scrolls. The right-hand room is plainer, with only a moulded cornice. Upper-storey rooms have moulded cornices, panelled shutters and simple marble chimneypieces. Wooden back staircase has narrow open well, cut strings, thin square balusters, and handrail ramped up over column-newels. Charles Kingsley is believed to have written 'Westward Ho!' while he was tenant of Northdown Hall in 1854-5. (Rogers WH: Notes on Bideford (typescript): P.77, 78, 80).

Listing NGR: SS4511826980

External Links

• Wikidata Q17536643

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)