Curlews Farmhouse

Farmhouse, dating from the early 19th century, with alterations and additions in the 1970s. It is constructed of yellow brick in a fine Flemish bond, with ashlar dressings, and has a Welsh slate roof. Further additions have been made in matching style and materials. The original structure is approximately square, comprising a two-room, central entrance-hall to the south front and a two-room west garden front. Additions extend to the north and east. The building has two storeys. A stone step leads from a former verandah on both the south and west fronts. A plinth band runs around the base. The south front has six bays, with a four-bay symmetrical entrance front to the left. The entrance to the second bay features a pair of steps with moulded nosings leading to a half-glazed panelled door with margin lights, a plain overlight, and an ashlar lintel within a splayed brick reveal and surround, complete with brick pilasters and dosserets topped with a moulded cornice and blocking course. Original recessed 12-pane sashes are present, with two windows to the right and a further pair of matching 20th-century windows to the right extension. A painted first-floor band projects to form a blocking course above the entrance. The first floor incorporates three original 12-pane sashes to the left, a narrow sash to the right with margin lights, and a pair of 20th-century sashes to the right extension. The first three bays have 19th-century wooden louvred window shutters, with ramped tops to the ground-floor examples. A corniced wood gutter runs along the roofline. A double-span hipped roof is topped by a ridge stack with twin shafts, ashlar plinths, cornices, blocking courses, and square pots. Similar stacks are present to the left return (with four shafts) and the rear. The left return forms a two-bay west garden front, with a pair of full-length ground-floor 12-pane sashes beneath wedge lintels in raised surrounds that incorporate ashlar entablatures; raised sections of the first-floor band act as blocking courses. Matching 12-pane first-floor sashes are present. All windows on the west front have louvred shutters. A single-storey, single-window 20th-century addition is situated to the left, featuring a matching sash beneath a hipped roof. Inside, the entrance hall has an elliptical-arched opening to a stairhall featuring pilasters, an archivolt, and a panelled soffit. A good open-well cantilevered staircase retains a wreathed grip handrail, profiled cheek-pieces, and a cast-iron balustrade with wavy foliate balusters and a foliate drop-shaped newel post. The southwest room boasts a grey marble chimney-piece with acanthus leaf consoles. The northwest room contains an elliptical-arched alcove with pilasters and an archivolt. Plasterwork includes ornate moulded and coved cornices, foliate friezes and centrepieces to the main west rooms and lower hall, a panelled ceiling to the upper hall, moulded cornices to a study and first-floor bedrooms. Panelled doors are set within architraves throughout. A tented verandah originally extended along the south and west sides of the house.