Ashton Gifford House - Architecture of Ashton Gifford House

Architecture of Ashton Gifford House

English Heritage, in their Images of England section describe the property as having a limestone ashlar front with side walls of brick. The property is three-storied, with a three-window central block breaking forward and two-storey same-height side-bays. The main entrance is a Distyle in antis Tuscan portico to the centre with inserted double half-glazed doors and flanking tripartite sashes, an inner main door with 6 fielded panels, fanlights and flanking margin-pane round-arched sashes with interlaced glazing bars. The ground floor of centre block has rusticated stonework. The first floor has three 9-pane sashes, and the second floor has a plat band and three 6-pane sashes. The two-storey side-bays have 8-pane margin sashes and a plat band. At the roof level there is a moulded cornice to the plain stone parapet with 20th-century pineapple decorations.

At the rear of the property there are two central bays which break forward with 12-pane sashes to ground floor, 9-pane to first and 6-pane sashes to second floor, side-bays have 8-pane margin sashes to ground and first floors. The interior features of the property that are highlighted by English Heritage include the central entrance hall with an oval open-well staircase (which has a continuous handrail and cast-iron balusters). Also noted are the presence of period doors, of six-panelled design, in panelled reveals and moulded architraves, and the existence of period window shutters. On the ground floor, the drawing room has a scrolled plaster ceiling margin and a fireplace, which are singled out for special mention.