Description

HARBERTON

SX75NE
5/386 Tristford House
including detached
clock tower to E

GV II

Country house, subdivided into 3 tenements. 1849 by George Wightwick for Mrs
Wynne Pendarves of the Trist family, enlarged in circa 1857 for J F Trist.
Local Devon limestone ashlar with freestone dressings. Rear service wing
rendered stone rubble. Slate roofs with stone coped gables.
Plan: The original house built around a small stairwell with a south front
and rear service wing to north. In circa 1857 a cross wing was added to the
left (west) side with a new entrance and a turret was built on the right
(south east corner. A former conservatory, probably of 1857, to the right,
has been demolished; it originally connected the clock tower to the house but
the clock tower is now detached.
Exterior: 2 storeys and attic. Original 1849 centre 3 bay range with
slightly advanced gables left and right with stone finials and projecting
gabled oriel at centre on first storey. Ground storey has large stone mullion
canted bay windows with balustrades above and 2-light stone mullion window at
centre with hoodmould. Oriel above a 4-centred arch window with hoodmould.
Above the bay windows 2-light timber mullion windows with hoodmoulds and
recessed panels above in the gables, one containing wheatsheaf, the other a
hawk. On right hand corner a 2-storey octagonal tower with 4-centred headed
lights to stone mullion windows with hoodmoulds and steep decoratively slated
spire with cross weathervane, the coved stone eaves has row of palettes and
frieze below with small quatrefoils. To left (west) projecting canted bay to
cross wing with stone bracketed cornice and tall shaped gable with moulded
ogee-headed attic window. 2 and 3-light stone mullion windows, the ground
storey with 4 centred headed lights and moulded string course over, the first
floor windows with hoodmoulds. The side of the cross wing has projecting
lateral stack with set-offs and single storey porch at the rear with heavily
moulded 4-centred arch doorway, fleurons in the moulded cornice above and
balustrade with central panel containing coat of arms.
The now detached clock tower to right (east) is square on plan, 3-stages,
middle stage has 4 centred headed single light window, top stage has moulded
stone bullseye, flanked by 4-centred lancets above. The front and rear
roundels contain copper clock faces. Stone bracketed cornice with small dome
above and stone finials at corners. A low stone wall, with rehung former
conservatory windows, links tower to house.
Interior: Entrance porch and vestibule has moulded cornice with alternating
palmettes and acanthus and moulded 4-centred arch niches and similar arch to
hall which has stone chimnmeypiece with Tudor arch and overmantel with
recessed panel containing large carved wheatsheaf and hawk holding a fish in
its beak. South west room has marble chimneypiece with Tudor arch and
flanking columns and moulded plaster coffered ceiling and double pilasters
either side of recess in end wall. Other rooms contain marble chimneypieces
and moulded plaster cornices. Most of the original joinery is intact
including moulded architraves, doors with 4-centre arch panels, panelled
window shutters and dado panelling etc. Open-well staircase in central
stairwell with octagonal newels with cops and pendants, chamfered square-
section balusters and moulded rail. C20 roof light in place of lantern over
stair well.
Inside rear service range a large early C17 moulded granite fireplace, said
to have come from Bowden House south of Totnes. It has ogee and hollow
moulding and moulded conves stops to the jambs. The ogee mouldings in the
lintel rise over a shaped recess which contains a shield and cornucopia.
Historic note: Tristford was the seat of the Trists from the C18, after they
had left Bowden House in Totnes.

Listing NGR: SX7791559291

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26576521

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

• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)