Magdalen House And Flanking Screen Walls

Magdalen House is a farmhouse dating from 1815, built for Thomas Wilson. It was altered slightly in the 19th century. The exterior is finished in red-brown brick, with the north front whitewashed. It has a pantile roof. The building is arranged as a double-depth plan with a central entrance hall, a main south front, a secondary north front, and screen walls to the east and west that incorporate a late 19th-century outshut on the west side of the house.

The south front has two storeys and an attic, with three bays. The entrance is slightly to the left of centre, with a doorcase featuring panelled pilasters and brackets supporting a moulded dosseret and hood. The door is half-glazed with four panes above two fielded panels, set beneath a moulded cornice and radial fanlight within a round-headed, panelled reveal. Ground-floor windows are unequal 20-pane sashes in reveals with sills and painted rubbed-brick cambered arches. First-floor windows are 12-pane sashes in flush wooden architraves with similar sills and arches, all with narrow glazing bars. Stepped eaves and a double-span roof are present, along with a tumbled-in brick raised gable and end stacks. The right return has single 12-pane sashes to ground and first floors, and a 4-pane attic sliding sash. The left return has a 6-pane attic casement and three 6-pane ground-floor windows within an adjoining screen wall.

The north front is symmetrical with three bays. It features a doorcase with panelled pilasters supporting tall dosserets and an open modillioned pediment. The door has six fielded panels and a blind radial fanlight within a round-headed reveal. The ground floor has 12-pane sashes in flush wooden architraves with sills and stucco cambered arches. A central, round-headed first-floor sash with glazing bars is present. The outshut to the right boasts similar single 12-pane sashes on each floor.

Plain, stone-coped screen walls, approximately 2 metres tall and extending roughly 20 metres to each side, adjoin the house. The wall to the west has a late 19th-century ramped parapet on the south side of the outshut.

Inside, the entrance hall has a corniced dado rail, 6-fielded-panel doors in architraves with beaded-panel reveals, and a round-arched opening to the rear stairhall, which features panelled pilasters and an archivolt with a fluted key. The open-well staircase has a ramped corniced handrail, slender column balusters, plain newels, and scrolled cheekpieces, along with a ramped corniced dado rail. Ground-floor front rooms have moulded cornices and 19th-century chimney-pieces flanked by round-headed alcoves. The first-floor hall has an elliptical arch with a keyed archivolt and a dado rail. Bedrooms have original fireplaces with cast-iron duck’s nest grates and chimney-pieces with panelled pilasters, dosserets, plain friezes and moulded cornices. The front left bedroom is flanked by full-height cupboards with fielded-panel doors, while the front and rear right bedrooms have moulded cornices.