Shortflatt Tower

Shortflatt Tower is a house and tower with a complex history, primarily dating to the 15th or 16th century, with some later additions. A licence to crenellate was granted in 1305 to Robert de Reynes, though the current tower structure appears later. The attached house was built in the early 17th century, incorporating and reusing earlier masonry. The building is constructed of squared stone, with a stone slate roof to the tower and Welsh slate to the rest of the house.

The tower is a three-storey structure, with a house attached to the east, and two parallel wings extending north from the house.

The south (garden) front features the projecting tower, which has a chamfered plinth and irregularly placed early 19th-century sash windows. The inner return side has a Tudor-arched doorway, now converted into a window; the left half of the lintel features a carved shield and panel, while the right half is plain. The battlemented parapet has a hollow-chamfered base and stone water spouts. The steeply-pitched roof has end stacks. The attached house has four irregular bays with 18th-century 12-pane sash windows set beneath early 17th-century string courses. The roof is hipped on the right side, and an enormous ridge stack, revealing the building was formerly three storeys high (as evidenced by the interior), sits between the third and fourth bays.

The north (entrance) side has a 19th-century Tudor-style doorway leading into the tower. Similar windows are present, some set within double-chamfered surrounds. Within the tower, one window is a widened 16th-century opening with a chamfered surround, and three similar windows are blocked. A small, single-storey projection of older masonry with a double plinth is located on the north-east corner of the tower.

The tower’s ground floor is tunnel-vaulted. On the first floor, there is a jamb from a recently discovered (1985) large 16th or 17th-century fireplace. The second floor contains a possibly reset earlier medieval fireplace with chamfered jambs and corbels supporting a flat lintel. The tower has massive 16th-century roof timbers. In the roof space of the adjoining wing, there is a 16th or 17th-century fireplace, along with fragments of plasterwork suggesting a former second floor. The dining room contains a Rococo wood fire surround and contemporary Delft tiles. H. Honeyman initially considered the tower to be of 1305, but later information suggests a later construction date. The building is an extremely picturesque example of its type.