Bridge End House

Bridge End House, Warkworth

A substantial early 18th-century house with attached outbuildings, now mostly incorporated into dwellings. The main building was heightened shortly after its original construction and underwent significant internal and external alterations in the late 19th century.

The main house is built of squared stone to its front elevation, with the rear showing large squared rubble heightened in squared stone, late 19th-century snecked stone, and ashlar bay work. The north range is mostly squared stone, while the south outbuilding retains some of its original brick. Roofing varies across the complex: the main house and 1-storey wing have Welsh slate, with a leaded top to the 19th-century bay; the adjoining 2-storey north wing is covered in black pantiles with blue slates to the east eaves and stone slates to the west; the far end has a 20th-century concrete tile roof. A yellow brick stack serves the main house, and the south outbuilding has a pantile roof. The plan comprises a rectangular main block with a pent south outbuilding and an irregular north range curving westward.

The main front elevation displays three storeys across five bays in a symmetrical composition. Rusticated quoins frame the façade. The centrepiece features an old half-glazed door in a lugged architrave, flanked by slender pilasters supporting a pediment on consoles. The lower floors have 12-pane sash windows set in bolection-moulded surrounds, with a modillion cornice positioned above the first-floor windows (this represents the original eaves cornice). The second floor carries 6-pane sashes in similar surrounds, with a modillion eaves cornice above. Coped gables with moulded kneelers terminate the end walls, and stepped-and-corniced end stacks rise at the gable ends.

To the left, a set-back pent south outbuilding features a plinth and band with renewed doors under a timber lintel. The right side shows a 1-storey, 2-bay front wing with an early 20th-century half-glazed door beneath a console-bracketed cornice hood. A 12-pane sash window to the right and a similar window to the left (inserted into an older doorway with rusticated surround) light this section. The right end has a coped gable on a moulded kneeler; an early 20th-century flat-topped roof dormer holds small-paned casements. Behind runs a parallel 2-storey wing with stepped right end stacks.

The left return elevation displays a 6-pane attic casement and traces of a lower gable outline.

The riverside elevation (viewable from the riverside path) shows the set-back gable end of the 1-storey wing with the main block's gable behind. Various sashes and blocked openings punctuate this façade. A central 1-storey link connects to a taller building at the right end, which features a blocked segmental cart entrance now holding a boarded door and barred window. The gable coping is raised and reverse-stepped; an end stack, rebuilt on the right, terminates this section.

The rear elevation of the main house spans four bays. A tall late 19th-century transomed bay window occupies the left; a stair window and other openings retain bolection-moulded surrounds, mostly fitted with late 19th-century casements. In the right outshut, a 6-panel door and an oculus within a carved border (probably reset) are visible. The north wing contains one sash with thick glazing bars and other sashes, with boarded doors at the end section, one positioned under a heavy timber lintel.

Interior details include fielded-panel doors and shutters throughout. A dog-leg closed-string stair features turned balusters and newels, a moulded and ramped handrail, a curtail step, and carved tread ends. The rear left sitting room is lined with fielded panelling to dado height, contains a 2-panel door, and is heated by a fireplace with a stone bolection-moulded surround and cornice. One bedroom has a cornice with reeded and dentil ornament. Two other bedrooms each contain stone bolection-moulded fireplaces; one includes a cornice, pulvinated frieze, and stone mantelpiece. A billiard room in the north range features a large basket-arched fireplace.