Croft House

Croft House is a house dating from 1905, built by the noted architect John Douglas, with a later extension around 1920 for the Thompson family. It is constructed of pink brick in an English garden wall bond, with orange terracotta dressings and a purple tile roof with a red ridge. Brick chimneys feature moulded cornices. The house is in a neo-vernacular style, with an L-shaped plan.

The east front has four bays and is one and two stories high. A moulded band runs across the first floor, rising above the centrally placed entrance. Above the door, in raised terracotta lettering, is the inscription: “FOR EVERY HOUSE IS BUILDED BY SOME MAN BUT HE THAT BUILDS ALL THINGS IS GOD” along with the date 1905. The entrance is a studded board door with ornate furniture, flanked by single-light windows. The ground floor has four-light mullioned windows with basket-arched heads. A similar window is in a gabled half-dormer with decorative diaper work. The original building retains its original window arrangement, though the extension has larger windows.

A rear outbuilding is constructed of ashlar and incorporates a timber roof truss with an ornate tiebeam, dated 1871.

The interior features simple architraves around four-panelled doors and a plain staircase with rebated balusters.

The house occupies a central position in Douglas’s Village Green, originally a public space separated from the road and forming a distinctive group with its surroundings.