The Manse

The Manse is a manse built in 1899 by J Middleton Shallcross for the Presbyterian Church, now known as the United Reformed Church. It features a whitened roughcast exterior on brick, with a stone plinth, quoins, doorcase, and dressings. The hipped roof is covered in green slate and has exposed rafter feet, extended stay gutter supports, and tall console cornice stacks.

The building is two stories high with an eight-window front arranged in a 4:1:3 pattern, and it has battered angle buttresses at the front left corner. To the right of the center, there is a doorcase with battered jambs that rises into a moulded hood supported by integral console brackets. The front door is part glazed with leaded lights and has a metal sheet covering the lower part, while the overlight also features leaded glazing. The windows are 4/4 sashes, with those on the ground floor paired or grouped in flush quoined surrounds with hoodmoulds, and on the first floor, they sit above a moulded sill string that is returned at both ends. At the rear, there is a single-storey square projection with a flat roof, above which is a wide staircase window.

Inside, the inner front door is glazed and vertically panelled. The entrance hall is separated from the rear hall by a heavy timber screen that partly supports the open newel staircase at the second step. The staircase is plain, with a bullnosed step, slat balusters, and a panelled spandrel. Guest and service doors, separated by the hall screen, lead to a large reception room at the rear, while this room and a smaller adjoining room at the front have picture rails and flat ogee ceiling cornices. The doors throughout have unusual very narrow panels above the door heads, and they consist of three vertical panels above the lock rail and three below. The landing window is leaded at ceiling level over the external rear projection in clerestory form, contributing to a very light interior that showcases an interesting blend of traditional and modern features.