The Shanty, Stable Block, Boundary Wall, Gates and Piers

The Shanty is a house with a separate stable block, boundary wall, gates and piers built between 1895 and 1896 by the architect Barry Parker for Andrew Macnair. During the inter-war period, the stable was converted to a motor house, and the coach house was later converted into a cottage.

The buildings are constructed of pink sandstone rubble stone with red sandstone ashlar dressings, decorative half-timber framing, and small brown tiles for the roofs.

THE HOUSE

The house has a rectangular plan with the eastern half occupied by a hall rising through two storeys. This hall originally contained a first-floor balcony on the south side (now enclosed), a stair and landing on the west side with an inglenook beneath, and an organ gallery on the north side (the pipe organ has been removed). The western half of the ground floor contains the entrance vestibule, dining room, and kitchen (originally subdivided into kitchen, scullery and pantry). The first floor contains two bedrooms (one presently subdivided) and a bathroom, all opening off a corridor from the hall landing. A staircase on the north side rises to a second-floor landing serving two further bedrooms and a bathroom (perhaps originally a dressing room). There is also a small coal and wood store basement beneath the north-west extension and added west porch.

The separate former stable block and coach house now comprises a motor house on the west side replacing the stable, and a two-storey cottage on the east side replacing the coach house.

The house is set back from Church Lane to the west. It has a double-pitched roof running east to west with a brick ridge stack towards the west side and a second brick stack towards the centre on the north pitch of the roof.

The main south-facing elevation is of four bays and two storeys. The first floor of the two central bays is jettied to project slightly with half-timbered box framing featuring curved braces and a gable with timber soffits and bargeboards. It has two two-light windows with timber mullions. Beneath the half-timbering the wall is constructed of shaped and coursed rubble stone with a recessed open porch to the left and a three-light window to the right. The porch has a chamfered Tudor arch of red ashlar. The main entrance door has full-width decorative ironwork strap hinges with vertical battens to the lower half and a segmental-arched light to the upper half with a decorative pattern of leaded coloured glass. Small-pane leaded glazing flanks the upper half of the door and fills the full width of the porch above the doorway.

The full height of the first bay is built of shaped and coursed rubble stone with a three-light window on each floor. The ground floor of the fourth bay is built of shaped and coursed rubble stone with a three-light window. The three-light windows all have red ashlar frames and slender, chamfered mullions with metal frames and replacement leaded double glazing. The first floor of the fourth bay occupies the original position of the balcony. It now has a row of six lights with single-pane glazing and timber mullions over half-timbered box framing. Above the gable is a small inserted dormer window in the main pitched roof.

The east gable wall is built of shaped and coursed rubble stone with half-timbered box framing to the gable apex and timber soffits and bargeboards. A central window with timber mullions and transoms incorporating a half-glazed door rises through two floors up to the half-timbering. The door is flanked by a light on each side with a grid four panes wide by three panes high above. It opens onto a stone patio with three steps into the garden (not original). At first-floor level on the left-hand side, in the position of the former balcony return, is a row of three lights with single-pane glazing and timber mullions over half-timbered box framing. The half-timbered gable apex has a horizontal, five-light window with timber mullions and replacement metal frames with single-pane glazing.

The north elevation has a long horizontal dormer window with an overhanging pitched roof to the centre of the wall. The windows have timber frames and replacement leaded double glazing. The wall beneath has irregular fenestration. The ground floor has two three-light mullion windows of differing sizes and a four-light mullion window to the right-hand side. On the first floor there is a pair of single-light windows above the smaller three-light window and a three-light mullion window above the four-light window. All the window apertures have red ashlar frames with metal window frames with replacement leaded double glazing. At the right-hand end of the elevation is a small, single-storey, flat-roofed extension built of shaped and coursed rubble stone. It overlaps the ashlar stone frame of the four-light mullion window with its left-hand return wall and steps down at its right-hand end. It has a coped parapet to the higher section and a stone-flagged roof to the lower section. There is a single-light window in the north side with a red ashlar frame and a doorway in the lower section.

The west gable wall is built of shaped and coursed rubble stone. The ground floor has a single-light window and a three-light mullion window to the right-hand side. To the left-hand side is an extension comprising a single-storey, flat-roofed porch with coped parapet with the lower section with stone-flagged roof to left. Both are built of shaped and coursed rubble stone and the right-hand return wall of the porch overlaps the ashlar stone frame of the single-light window. The porch has a doorway with a narrow window with leaded panes to its left with combined ashlar frames; the door architrave has moulded detailing to the upper part of the frame; the window has a chamfered frame. The timber door is part-glazed with six small-pane lights. On the first floor above the porch is a three-light mullion window and there is a horizontal, six-light window to the gable apex. All the multi-light windows have ashlar frames and mullions, with metal window frames and replacement leaded double glazing. The gable has timber soffits and bargeboards.

THE MOTOR HOUSE AND COTTAGE

The two buildings adjoin and both are built of shaped and coursed rubble stone with small, brown tile roofs. The south-facing elevation has the motor house projecting forward on the left-hand side. It is single-storey, of two bays with an overhanging hipped roof. Each bay has a three-light window with ashlar stone frames and mullions and small-paned, leaded glazing. The right-hand return is blind; the roof hip on this side overlaps the front elevation of the cottage.

The cottage (former coach house) is of two storeys. The gabled first floor is jettied to project slightly with half-timbered box framing with curved braces and a central two-light window and timber soffits and bargeboards. The rubble-stone ground floor beneath has a doorway to the left and a window to the right, both with monolithic rubble stone lintels. The timber door is part-glazed with six small-pane lights. On the right-hand side of the gable is a two-storey, single bay of rubble stone, hipped to the east. It has a single, ground-floor window with a monolithic rubble stone lintel. All the windows have uPVC frames and leaded double glazing.

The west elevation of the motor house faces onto the road. It has a wide, Tudor-arched opening with red ashlar stone frame and large, timber, double doors with strap hinges beneath a shaped timber lintel. The right-hand door has two port-hole windows; the left-hand replacement door is due to have two similar windows inserted. Above is a half-timbered, gabled, dormer dove-cote with three openings with perches.

The rear, north elevation is of rubble stone with no timber detailing to the gable. There are three similar, tall rectangular windows on the ground floor with a smaller window at the left-hand end. There is also a window in the gable apex.

The east elevation of the cottage rises through two storeys on the left-hand side with a hipped roof and is single-storeyed beneath a cat-slide roof on the right-hand side. There is a first-floor window to the left and a ground-floor window to the right.

INTERIOR OF THE HOUSE

The interior retains many original fixtures and fittings such as fluted timber door architraves with plain corner blocks and two panel doors with central rails and opposing diagonal boarding above and below, some with decorative iron hinges, similarly detailed smaller cupboard doors with single panels of diagonal boarding, and fluted timber fire surrounds with plain corner blocks and cast-iron grates to the first-floor bedrooms. Many of the iron window frames have original decorative ironwork fittings.

The main room is the hall, a spatially complex, double-height room with wooden parquet flooring. On the north side is a deep inglenook with a low ceiling framed by heavy, turned timber posts supporting posts and rails with curved bracing. The left-hand side of the inglenook is formed by a quarter-turn stair with quarter-pace landing. The inglenook has fixed, timber benches on each side and an original, beaten copper chimney hood to the fireplace. The space beneath the quarter landing has built-in shelving and cupboards with decorative iron hinges. The stair has a timber balustrade with pierced splat balusters. The two windows in the south elevation have fixed window seats with low-level book shelves between. The north-east window also has a fixed window seat.

At first-floor level the north side (former organ gallery) has a timber balustrade with similar splat balusters; there are similar balustrades round the head of the stair on the landing over the inglenook, with several posts with curved braces rising to the ceiling. In the north-west corner of the landing is a curved, timber settle facing a fireplace with a beaten copper fire chimney-piece with cast-iron grate and slightly sunken hearth of small, green-glazed tiles.

On the south side is the balcony which has an original half-timbered wall with a continuous row of windows with timber mullions and rails and small-pane leaded glazing overlooking the hall.

The dining room has fixed window seats, timber framing to the window apertures, a timber band at picture rail height, and joists.

The kitchen retains the original external back door (now opening into the porch), which is a plank and batten door with external iron, wavy strap hinges.

Opening off the first-floor landing at the head of the stair is an angled two-way door; the door can either close off the bedrooms from the hall or close off the stair up to the second floor being hinged to fit in architraves for both doorways. The original door has decorative strap hinges, a lower panel of diagonal boarding and a large glazed light of leaded small panes.

The south-west, first-floor bedroom has a built-in cupboard next to the fireplace.

The second floor has a timber balustrade with similar splat balusters and beams over the two flights of the dog-leg stair with half-pace landing supporting stairs shaped cut-out timbers.

INTERIOR OF THE MOTOR HOUSE AND COTTAGE

The motor house is comprehensively fitted out with a tiled floor with an inspection pit, fully-tiled walls with brick-shaped glazed tiles of rich brown to mid-height with stepped pattern and white above up to eaves level with tiled, mid-point pilasters supporting an iron cross-girder. The ceiling is boarded out.

There are no fixtures or fittings of interest in the cottage.