Carterbench House

Carterbench House, formerly known as Rock Bank House, was built around 1840 for Martin Swindells. This building, which has also served as a hospital and is now used as offices, is constructed from buff sandstone with a Welsh slate roof and features five stone chimneys. Designed in the Tudor Gothick style, it has a T-shaped layout and stands two and a half stories tall with a four-bay south front. The first and third bays project forward and are topped with gables. These gables contain large three-light wooden mullioned and transomed windows set in substantial chamfered stone surrounds, with similar windows above supported by moulded brackets and hood moulds. The top storey features a three-light casement window beneath a chamfered head within the barge-boarded gables. The second bay includes a prominent porch with chamfered jambs, which houses a four-centred arched doorcase with a pair of heavy Gothick doors. The end bay to the right has single lights beneath hood moulds. There is a castellated enclosed bridge that crosses a passage to the rear.

Inside, the hall boasts a Tudor panelled ceiling adorned with facial and foliage bosses. A dog-leg mahogany staircase features pierced iron balusters and trefoil mouldings on the newels and open string. The room to the left of the hall has an Elizabethan panelled ceiling with pendants in circular panels, while the room to the right showcases Gothick blind arcading as a cornice for a panelled ceiling. A room at the rear features a broad frieze with a delicate running foliage pattern. Most doors and shutters are designed with trefoil cusped heads and lancet mouldings.