Acton House And House At Rear

This is a country house, built around 1781, attributed to William Newton for Robert Lisle. It incorporates an earlier 18th-century house at the rear, although the original rear wing was largely demolished around 1920 and is now a separate dwelling. The main part of the house is constructed from tooled ashlar, while the rear wing is of squared tooled stone, except for the south part of its west wall, which is brick in an English Garden Wall Bond pattern (alternating rows of one and four bricks). It has a graduated Lakeland slate roof with brick stacks rebuilt on older foundations.

The south front has two storeys and is arranged with a 2 + 3 + 2 bay layout. It features a plinth and bands marking the first floor and sill levels. A grand five-step entrance is flanked by moulded nosing, leading to a central feature with panelled, giant Ionic pilasters, a fluted frieze, and a modillioned pediment. An old half-glazed door, with side-lights, is enclosed by a round arch with fluted capitals, a frieze, and an archivolt. The windows are 12-pane sashes. Moulded eaves cornices run along the top. The roof is hipped with two ridge stacks.

The returns on the sides are similar in design. To the right of the right return is a lower, two-bay rear wing. The left bay showcases a keyed Venetian window and two 12-pane sashes. A parapet with a pediment-shaped centre tops the wing. A slightly projecting right bay, featuring renewed 12-pane sashes, is part of the early 18th-century house.

The rear elevation shows a Venetian stair window with a radial-headed 20-pane sash. The wing to the left has two 4-pane sashes under 4-centred arches and a Venetian window on the brick part of the inner return. A stone end bay, built in the early 20th century, has sash windows set within reused 18th-century architraves.

The interior is largely contemporary with the main construction. The Entrance Hall has a fireplace with a radial hearth and a fluted frieze. The Drawing Room contains a 20th-century replacement marble fireplace, a chair rail, carved architraves and doorheads, and a palette frieze. The Morning Room is similarly decorated, featuring a carved wood fireplace with sphinxes, a fluted frieze, and an egg-and-dart cornice. The Dining Room has a 20th-century replacement marble fireplace, flat plaster panelling above a dado rail, and a frieze and overdoors with fluting and paterae motifs. The present kitchen also has a fluted frieze. The cellars have brick barrel vaults and wine bins. A Roman Doric screen is located at the foot of the Imperial staircase, featuring iron stick balusters and a ramped handrail, and an Ionic screen leads to the stairhead. Bedrooms feature carved wood fireplaces, chair rails, and cornices.

Attached outbuildings at the rear, dating back to the early 18th century, have been significantly altered in the early 20th century and are not considered to be of particular architectural interest.