Ferham House

SK49SW ROTHERHAM KIMBEWORTH ROAD (south side) 5/53 Ferham House 19.10.51 II Large house now offices of Rotherham Health Authority. c1787. Attributed to John Platt (Colvin p641), for Jonathan Walker; C20 additions. Red brick in Flemish band, C20 cement-tile roof. 3 storeys with cellars, 3 x 5 bays; symmetrical facades. Entrance front: plinth. Porch has wide, panelled door and fanlight with decorative glazing bars flanked by narrow lights set between pilasters; pediment on 2 columns. Sashes with glazing bars to outer bays have projecting sills and architrave; small narrow sash to far right. lst-floor band and lst-floor sill band beneath central round-arched panel containing Ionic Venetian window and 2nd-floor window with sill blocks and swept-shouldered architrave to 6-pane sash. Outer lst-floor windows have sashes with glazing bars in corniced architraves. Short 2nd-floor windows in architraves with 6-pane sashes and matching casement to bay 1. Modillioned eaves cornice, central single-bay open pediment. Hipped roof, stacks removed. Addition to right in keeping with main range has curved wall with corniced opening (now casement) terminating at hipped-roof outbuilding with round-arched recesses. Left return: 3-storey canted-bay projection with pedimented doorcase to centre (now with sash). Shouldered architrave and segmental pediment to central lst-floor window. Right return: square projection has tripartite window to 1st floor and Diocletian window to 2nd floor; attached buildings not of special interest. Interior: cantilevered staircase with iron balustrade. Arcaded panels to lst-floor landing, decorative plaster ceiling to stair-well. Ground-floor room to rear left has elaborate cornice and good plaster ceiling with classical scenes. Adjacent room has semi-domed niches and plasterwork wall panels, including cherubs above door. Platt's journal, cited by Potts (p17), records the laying of vestibule and staircase floors at this house. This forms the basis for attribution although Platt is known to have worked on houses designed by others e.g. Clifton House (q.v.). H. Colvin, Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600-1840, 1978. J. D. Potts, Platt of Rotherham, Mason-Architects, 1700-1810, Sheffield, 1959.

Listing NGR: SK4147692800