Hoyle Court

Hoyle Court is a large house, built in 1912 and now a Masonic Lodge. It is constructed of snecked dressed rubble with ashlar dressings; the rear is of hammer-dressed stone, and the roof is covered with stone slates. The building is of Edwardian Baroque style and has a symmetrical facade arranged in a U-shape with projecting wings. The south front has eleven bays on the ground floor and five bays of windows on the first floor. The wings feature quoins and two ground-floor windows each, with architraves, keystones, projecting sills and aprons. Above these windows is a three-light window with a broken pediment over the central light, which has an apron with a carved bracket. A shaped gabled dormer with a keyed oculus and carved bracket sits above. The roof is hipped with a lateral stack on each wing. A slightly set-back hall range has three ground-floor windows flanking a doorway with a Gibbs surround and triple keystone. The first floor of the hall range has three windows of three lights, with the central one featuring a broken triangular pediment and the flanking windows having broken segmental pedimented tops. A parapet with a Lombard frieze rises to a central feature topped with a carved urn. The rear elevation features an elaborate porch with a triple-keystone doorcase, Ionic pilasters with raised blocks, an architrave, a pulvinated frieze, a cornice, and an open triangular pediment surmounted by a carved urn. A set-back first-floor window has a broken segmental pediment with a keyed oculus and shaped gables with brackets on either side.

The interior stair-hall contains a fine closed-string open-well staircase with a wreathed and ramped handrail, fluted newels with Corinthian capitals, and alternate fluted and twist balusters, two to each riser with brackets. Doorways are flanked by Doric pilasters with an architrave and console keystone. A plaster cornice features egg-and-dart moulding, and the walls are panelled. Two main reception rooms, now combined into one, have moulded cornices; the northernmost room has a heavy modillioned cornice and egg-and-dart moulding, fluted pilasters, and large double doors with two panels. The other room has a dado-rail with Vitruvian scroll decoration and a dentil cornice with foliage enrichment, including palmette and urn motifs. A third room has fine doorcases with stepped architraves, pulvinated friezes decorated with egg-and-dart moulding, and cyma-moulded cornices. A richly decorated fireplace features a carved Bacchanalian scene with cherubs and a donkey, alongside carved devils' heads and fruit and foliage. A modillioned cornice, marbled surround and original iron grate with a fretted Greek Key apron, and a carved overmantel (a copy of the original painting) complete the fireplace’s detailing.