Description

ST8054 RODE CP RODE HILL (North side)

12/411 Langham House and attached stables

11.3.68

GV II*

Country House. Reputedly 1792 by T Baldwin for William Lydyard addition of 1810. Ashlar, moulded cornice, balustraded parapet with coping, stone urns at the angles, hipped slate roof, 2 low ashlar stacks with moulded caps. Classical. 3
storeys 5 bays, sash windows with glazing bars, those to ground floor with semi- circular heads in shallow arched recesses; plain stone band at second floor level, moulded string below cornice, impost band with interlacement decoration to ground floor. Central door opening, 6-panelled door, fanlight with decorative glazing bars; stone portico with flat entablature of 4 Tuscan columns, Tuscan pilasters to wall. Single storey wing of 3 bays to right by Adam, tall French windows with glazing bars and marginal lights, moulded cornice, baluster parapet with corner urn, hipped slate roof. Single storey, 3-bay semi-circular bow window to rear elevation, sash windows with glazing bars, balustraded parapet, corner urns. Attached stables to rear of right return, hipped slate roof, 2 broad segmental headed openings to ground floor, plank door, above 2 glazed pitching eyes. Complete late C18 interior entered through a hall flanked by 2 Tuscan columns; most of the ground floor rooms with plaster friezes and cornices, the finest in the dining room, most fireplaces also remain. In 1860 the house achieved notoriety as the scene of the mysterious murder of 3 year old Francis Savill Kent. At that time it was known as Road Hill House, the name subsequently changed because of the attention the murder attracted. (Yseult Bridges, Saint with Red Hands, Jarrolds, 1954; Bernard Taylor, Cruelly Murdered, Souvenir Press, 1979).

Listing NGR: ST8045254238

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17552942

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)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)