The Court

The Court is a large house dating from the early 19th century, altered subsequently. It is constructed of sandstone ashlar and is set on a double-depth, three-unit plan with single-storey wings. The house is two and a half storeys high. The symmetrical three-bay front is dominated by a pedimented centre, with a projecting ground floor and full-width wrought-iron verandahs to both floors. The ground floor verandah has a low terrace broken in the centre by five steps leading to a recessed round-headed doorway with glazed double doors, a fanlight with radiating glazing bars, and a Tuscan architrave. Flanking the doorway are tall tripartite windows with pilasters. The first floor has glazed double doors in the centre with a moulded architrave, and slightly smaller tripartite windows on each side with fluted pilasters. The pediment contains a central lunette. The elaborate wrought-iron verandah features openwork balustrades at ground floor consisting of panels of horizontal figures-of-eight scrolls with acanthus decoration and Vitruvian scroll friezes, panelled stone piers supporting wrought-iron standards with rectilinear and wavy latticing and radiating spandrels to a frieze of intersecting ovals. The upper verandah is a seven-bay arcade of segmental-headed arches with latticed standards and a flat roof. Tall side-wall chimneys are present. Flanking the main block are single-storey wings with semicircular ends, each with a doorway in the front wall and sash windows in the ends. The wing on the left has been extended with an added upper storey and flat roof. The rear elevation has a central doorway with architrave and cornice, a round-headed stair window above, two tripartite windows on each floor, and a lunette in the pediment. Each flanking wing is connected to a large round-headed archway breaking into a pediment, with a screen wall beyond. The interior includes a dog-legged stone staircase with iron balusters, alternating between straight and wavy designs, and some moulded plaster ceiling decoration. Originally known as Ackworth Villa, the house was owned from 1823 to 1864 by Luke Howard, a London chemist whose studies of cloud formations contributed to the foundations of the science of meteorology.