Stowford House is a former manor house in the

South Hams South Hams is a non-metropolitan district, local government district on the south coast of Devon, England. Its council is based in the town of Totnes, although the largest town is Ivybridge. The district also contains the towns of Dartmouth, ...

district of

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

. It is close to the village of Harford. The building was designated a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

on 23 April 1952. The house was the birthplace of Thomas Williams, speaker at the House of Commons, and John Prideaux,

Bishop of Worcester The Bishop of Worcester is the Ordinary (officer), head of the Church of England Anglican Diocese of Worcester, Diocese of Worcester in the Province of Canterbury, England. The title can be traced back to the foundation of the diocese in the ...

. There has been a manor house on the grounds since the 14th century, and in 1400 there was a private chapel dedicated to St Nicholas. By 1664, the manor house and out buildings were recorded as having 14 hearths, implying that the house was much larger at the time. The house was significantly rebuilt during the 18th century, but parts of the old house from the 16th century remain. Built from stone

rubble Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionar ...

, the building is partly rendered, and partly

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

. The roof of the building is slate, with external chimneystack on the north side. On the north and west sides of the buildings courtyard the

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid sup ...

windows are bordered by hollow-chamfered stone. Over the west wing of the house, there is a large chimneystack made of stone, with battlements at the top. On the north end of the house, there is a moulded stone chimneystack. The front aspect of the building has a glaze porch, which includes

pilasters In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

. Inside the house is a large fireplace made of granite. One of the first-floor rooms has panelling from the 18th century, with a 16th-century moulded stone fireplace. The other rooms on the floor have granite fireplaces, one topped with an

ogee An ogee ( ) is an object, element, or curve—often seen in architecture and building trades—that has a serpentine- or extended S-shape (Sigmoid curve, sigmoid). Ogees consist of a "double curve", the combination of two semicircle, semicircula ...

. The building has been divided into three separate homes.

References

Further reading