Northdown Hall (Part of Stella Maris School), Bideford
Description: Northdown Hall (Part of Stella Maris School)
Grade: II*
Date Listed: 24 July 1974
English Heritage Building ID: 375909
OS Grid Reference: SS4511826980
OS Grid Coordinates: 245118, 126980
Latitude/Longitude: 51.0213, -4.2097
Location: Stella Maris Court, Bideford, Devon EX39 3JX
Locality: Bideford
Local Authority: Torridge District Council
County: Devon
Country: England
Postcode: EX39 3JX
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Listing Text
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
Source: English Heritage
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.