Howlish Hall

Howlish Hall is a house, now operating as a nursing home, dating from circa 1700, with significant additions and alterations made in the late 18th century, and further extensions in the 19th century. The building is constructed of painted ashlar and render, with a painted ashlar plinth, quoins and dressings. It has a Welsh slate roof with brick and ashlar chimneys.

The east front has a symmetrical design of 2:3:3 bays. The original two bays are visible on the left side, partially obscured by a 19th-century addition. A projecting porch, set in the angle of the building, features a canted entrance with a ramp leading to an 8-panel double door and a plain overlight within an architrave. The porch returns have single 2:4-pane sash windows in architraves with a cyma recta cornice. Above the porch, the original part of the house has six-pane sashes in architraves. A late 18th-century addition features windows similar to those of the porch, and four-pane sashes above in corniced architraves. The first three sashes are within a two-storey canted bay, followed by three further sashes adapted into top-hinged casements on the ground floor. Block gutter brackets are present on the roof of the original build, which has moulded kneelers to its double gable on the left return, with flat stone coping continuing over a central valley parapet. The late 18th-century section has a lower-pitched hipped roof, with a hipped projection over the canted bay; the roof of the original build has been raised to a flat roof at ridge level. Hipped roofs are present on the 19th-century rear wings. Chimneys on the original build's gables are brick, with an ashlar plinth and cornice; others on ridges and at the rear are brick with brick cornices. The left return has three tall windows to the billiard room at the rear. The right gable has a 19th-century canted bay window on the ground floor and a blocked window on the first floor, with a blank 19th-century addition. The rear elevation features an 18th-century Venetian stair window over a porch dating from around 1900, which has Art Nouveau detailing.

The interior retains original architectural details from each period, including two- and six-panel doors, dado rails, plain corniced chimney pieces, and door architraves. While many original room cornices have been lost, some may remain hidden behind suspended ceilings. The staircase within the 17th-century section has a moulded grip handrail on turned balusters, with a largely renewed but original gallery. A fire screen has been inserted behind the gallery, and the Venetian window has pilasters and architraves. The accessible 17th-century roof, visible from a flat-topped 19th-century addition, shows crossed principal rafters holding a ridge purlin, with one original collar to each truss and some later additions. A single level of purlins is present. Historical records indicate the Hopper family were early owners, followed by David Crawford of Newcastle in 1808, Sir William Eden in 1848, and finally Messrs Bolckow, Vaughan and Co. in 1924.