32-40, OVERLEIGH ROAD

A row of five estate cottages built in 1897 by John Douglas for the first Duke of Westminster. The cottages are constructed of Ruabon red brick with stone dressings, and have grey slate roofs with red terracotta ridges. Each cottage has two storeys and one bay. The front doors are framed and boarded, set in sandstone cases with moulded arrises to flush quoins and lintels. Doors to numbers 32-38 are paired, and the door to number 40 adjoins the left end. Each paired door has a two-pane, one-light window to the side. Each front parlour features a mullioned casement of three metal lights. A moulded sandstone band runs beneath the slightly projecting first floor, and a diapered band of mullioned casements with two three-pane lights sits under stone dormer gables. A datestone reads "18. W. 97." Two ridge chimneys and a gable chimney are present. The ground floor has canted corners, each with a small casement, and corbelled stone corner detailing leads to the first floor. Each end of the row has a two-light casement to each storey, stone bands, and stone copings to the end gables. Decorative copings are also found at steps in the roof level. The rear elevation is simple, with yards between single-storey outshuts featuring wash-house chimneys. The interiors were not inspected.