St Anne'S Rest Home

This is a large house, now operating as a rest home, with probable origins in the early 16th century. It was extended in 1797 for George Anne and altered around 1820 for Michael Anne, with later additions. The house is constructed of rubble magnesian limestone with a 20th-century cement-tile roof. It has two storeys with attics and an H-plan layout, with a five-by-one bay range added in the late 18th century parallel to the southern cross-wing.

The front (east) elevation features a chamfered plinth and large quoins. A 19th-century Gothic Revival porch provides access to the left (south) crossing of the H-plan, featuring shafts leading to a moulded arch flanked by diagonal buttresses rising as spirelets. Sashes with glazing bars are set within quoined surrounds, and a 3-light, double-chamfered, mullioned window illuminates the attic. A large external stack is corbelled out at first-floor level, with offset shoulders at eaves and a shaft now without flues. Ground-floor casements and first-floor sashes appear on either side of the stack, and a centre-pivoted casement is positioned to the right. The right cross-wing mirrors the left, displaying a 2-light, ground-floor window with an 8-pane sash and matching casement beneath a relieving arch. The added 18th-century range, set forward on the far left, includes a tall sash with glazing bars on both ground and first floors, which are now walled up internally. The attic of this range is lit by a 3-light, mullioned window. 19th-century kneelers and gable copings are found throughout, with stacks at eaves on the right of both left-hand wings.

At the rear, gabled stair turrets rise from the internal angles of the H-plan, spanning three storeys and featuring 6-pane sashes and 3-light, mullioned attic windows. The left return elevation displays sashes with glazing bars in chamfered, quoined surrounds, and a cut-back cornice sits beneath five blind gables dating to 1820.

The interior of the south cross-wing showcases exposed 16th-century trusses with principal rafters and straight-braced collars. Three trusses within the hall-block are obscured. The attic of the hall-block contains a priest’s hiding hole. The house was formerly the home of the recusant Anne family. A sketch from the early 19th century depicts the 1797 wing stuccoed and with a pediment. Later additions to the north are not considered to be of particular architectural interest.