Survey Data
Reg No
11901601
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Cultural, Historical, Social
Original Use
House
In Use As
House
Date
1840 - 1880
Coordinates
264671, 221000
Date Recorded
--/--/--
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached five-bay two-storey house, c.1860, possibly over basement with segmental-headed door opening to centre, single-bay two-storey recessed lower end bay to right (east) and five-bay two-storey parallel range along rear elevation to north having single-bay single-storey canted bay window to east and single-bay two-storey return to rear to north. Extended, c.1995, comprising single-bay single-storey flat-roofed return to rear to north with balcony over and single-bay single-storey conservatory. Gable-ended roofs with slate (pyramidal to conservatory). Clay ridge tiles. Rendered chimney stacks. Overhanging timber eaves on paired brackets. Cast-iron rainwater goods. Roughcast walls. Unpainted. Square-headed window openings (including to canted bay window to east to parallel range). Stone sills. Replacement 6/6 timber sash windows, c.1995, with exposed sash boxes (some possibly original). Segmental-headed door opening. Cut-stone Ionic doorcase approached by flight of stone steps. Timber panelled door. Sidelights and spiders-web fanlight. Set back from road in own grounds. Gravel forecourt to front. Mature landscaped gardens to rear. Detached five-bay single-storey outbuilding, c.1860, to east. Reroofed, c.1970. Gable-ended roof. Replacement corrugated-iron, c.1970. Iron ridge tiles. Cast-iron rainwater goods on eaves course. Roughcast walls. Unpainted. Square-headed door openings. Timber panelled half doors. Gateway, c.1860, to south comprising four cut-stone piers with curved flanking walls having cast-iron gates and railings.
Appraisal
Blakefield House is a fine and imposing mid nineteenth-century middle size house of graceful proportions and Classical detailing. A symmetrical entrance (south) front is off-set by a more complex garden (north) range. The house, despite slight modifications, retains much of its original character and retains many important original features and fittings. The entrance (south) front is dominated by a fine doorcase that boasts fine stone masonry in its execution and which is a decorative device in an otherwise stern façade. To the remainder of the elevation recent replacement fenestration has been installed in keeping with the original appearance of the house and is a good example of sympathetic restoration. The retention of further early salient materials and fittings, including the slate roof and cast-iron rainwater goods, suggests that the house may retain some early or original internal features of note. The house, when combined with the attendant outbuildings, represents a fine example of an almost-intact working farm that, today, contributes to the equestrian activity of the county, being in use as a stud farm - its is therefore of some social, cultural and historic interest. Set in pleasant landscaped grounds, the house is announced on the road by a fine gateway, which contains gates and railings of early surviving cast-iron work.