Description

PAIGNTON

SX86SE TOTNES ROAD
1947-1/2/129 (North side)
10/01/75 Primley House
(Formerly Listed as:
TOTNES ROAD
Primley House, The Herbert Whitley
Trust)

GV II

Large villa now in use as old people's home. c1820s with later
C19 alterations.
MATERIALS: Rendered; slate roof; stacks with deep projecting
cornices.
PLAN: Deep rectangular plan, the main block 2-rooms-wide with
a central entrance facing the stair, rear service and
subsidiary blocks.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. Symmetrical 5-bay entrance block with
hipped roof; left and right panelled clasping pilasters, a
platband at first-floor level and a plain parapet, probably
replacing one with a cornice. Centre bay slightly set back.
Open Doric porch with paired columns with an entablature,
moulded cornice and parapet crowned with pretty c1870s
wrought-iron balustrade. Steps up to porch with half-glazed
C19 inner porch with a dentil cornice and 2-leaf inner door
with a low panel and glazing bars. Porch paved with
monochromatic plain and encaustic tiles.
4 ground-floor 12-pane C19 sashes without horns; 5 similar
first-floor sashes, all with scalloped fascias for sunblinds.
5-bay left return scar of former conservatory, partial
platband, 12-pane sashes and high-transomed French window; one
C20 porch with glazed doors. To the far left a slightly
projecting 8-bay block, with a 2-bay recessed section has 2
gables to the front with bullseyes with moulded surrounds in
the gable. 4-bay right-hand block has first-floor pilasters
and a dentil frieze below the cornice. The 2 right-hand bays
have a ground floor bow window with C20 glazing with timber
glazing bars, cornice and parapet. Mostly C19 windows
throughout, some glazed with C19 small-pane sashes, some with
later 2-pane sashes. Unfortunate C20 single-storey projecting
porch.
The right return of the building is in the same style but
with, at the right end, a probably 1860s 3-storey block with a
hipped roof, deep eaves, and 3-bay front glazed with 4-pane
sashes. Left end has stack with scrolled stuccoed brackets.
INTERIOR: Ground floor of main block inspected. Stair with
cast-iron balusters and mahogany handrail. 2 principal
left-hand rooms retain white Italian marble chimney-pieces,
delicate decorated plaster ceiling friezes and cornices, and
folding doors in the party wall. The left-hand room has a late
Victorian painted marble chimny-piece and C19 cornice. Other
features of interest may survive elsewhere in the house.
HISTORY: Home of the Belfield family, who lived in Paignton
from the 1550s. The Reverend Finney Belfield, vicar of Torre,
retired to Primley House in 1825. He restored the late
medieval pulpit in the Church of St John, Church Street (qv).
(Ellis AC: An Historical Survey of Torquay, 2nd ed.: 1930-:
227).

Listing NGR: SX8775260196

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Primley House at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q26581093

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

• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)