The Stone House

The Stone House is a house built in 1911 by R. Mangnall Bluhm for A.T.R. Houghton. It is constructed of snecked sandstone with a stone slate roof and has a roughly L-shaped plan. The building features a three-bay range facing south, with a long east wing that embraces a shorter rear extension. It is designed in a 17th-century vernacular style, imitating the Old Rectory of Wooton-by-Woodford in Gloucestershire, and includes a steeply-pitched roof, gables, and gablets.

The garden front has a set-back center that is bridged at the first floor by timber framing, featuring a central gableted oriel and a balcony to the right (the former loggia beneath has been altered). The ground floor has gabled bays with transomed windows, while above are mullioned windows and loop lights in the gables. The right return wall includes a six-light transomed stairlight and a canted bay window. At the rear, the extension with the porch has a doorway with an architrave and cornice. The roof of the service wing ends in a bell gable, and a pitched roof at a lower level connects the gable wall to various outbuildings, including a stable with a loft accessed by external steps.

Inside, the main feature of interest is the staircase, which was salvaged from the Castle Inn in Preston before it was demolished around 1910. This dog-legged staircase has a closed string, panelled newel posts, turned barley sugar balusters, and a broad moulded handrail, likely dating from around 1700.