Reedness Manor House

Reedness Manor House is a house dating from the mid-18th century, incorporating some reused 17th-century brick, with later 18th-century and early to mid-19th-century alterations and additions. A 19th-century re-fronting and minor 20th-century alterations have also been implemented. The building is constructed of brick with a pebbledashed front, and sandstone ashlar dressings. Welsh slates cover the outer slopes of the front range roof, while pantiles are used on the inner slopes of the front roof. The rear wing has a Yorkshire slate roof, and an eaves course to the inner slope.

The house has a “1” shaped plan, initially consisting of a two-room central entrance hall to the north front and a single-room kitchen wing to the rear right. Later in the 18th century, single-room additions were made to the wing and to the inner angle, forming a double-depth front range. A further single-room extension was added to the rear wing in the 19th century.

The front façade is two storeys high with three bays, and displays symmetry. A 19th-century ashlar porch features panelled square columns with foliate capitals, supporting a plain entablature and flat hood. The front door is a six-panel design, the top four panels being glazed, and is set within a plain wooden surround. Full-height canted bays flank the porch, each with four-pane sashes in architraves, chamfered ashlar sills, and mullions. A central first-floor window is a four-pane sash with an ashlar sill. A moulded wooden eaves cornice runs along the top of the front range. The roof is double-span, with stone-coped gables, shaped kneelers, and corniced end stacks.

The right return side shows reused 17th-century brick in the lower courses of the front section, with straight joints indicating multiple builds. It features a single sixteen-pane sash and three tripartite sashes on each floor, with glazing bars in flush wooden architraves beneath segmental arches. A stepped and dentilled brick eaves cornice is present, along with a stone-coped gable with shaped kneelers to the main range, and a hipped roof to the lower two-storey right extension.

Inside, 18th-century details remain, including an open well staircase with a ramped handrail, scrolled brackets, slender column-on-vase balusters with square knops (although the curtail step and newel have been removed); a dentilled cornice and delicate plasterwork fan to the stairhall ceiling; a dentilled cornice to the front left room; and a drawing room with fielded-panel dado, moulded dado rail, plaster frieze depicting urns and festoons, dentilled cornice, and an ornate composition chimney-piece featuring panelled pilasters, a dentilled cornice and a fluted frieze with urns and festoons. A rear left bedroom has a plaster cornice, a pilastered chimney-piece with a fluted frieze and dentilled cornice, and a pair of flanking cupboards with six-fielded-panel doors in architraves. Further bedrooms and rooms feature dentilled cornices and chimney-pieces. Six-fielded-panel doors in architraves are found throughout. 19th-century pilastered arches and moulded cornices are present in the entrance hall and other main rooms, with one ground-floor front right room having a foliate frieze. Two 19th-century stone chimney-pieces are also present, along with a triple round-arched oven range in the back kitchen. The front of the building was formerly stuccoed and jointed to imitate ashlar.