Catmose (Rutland District Council Offices)

Catmose, the Rutland District Council Offices, is a country house that likely served as a hunting box, now repurposed as offices. It dates from the late 18th century and has 19th and 20th-century additions. The building is constructed of coursed rubble with stone dressings and features hipped slate roofs with moulded ashlar stacks. It has two storeys and an attic, with several ranges forming a large L-plan. The earlier front faces northeast and features a nine-window range of 1/1 sashes set in moulded architraves with keystones on the first floor, and segmental arches with keystones linked to a storey band on the ground floor. The central three-window section projects slightly and rises above the moulded cornice, displaying further sashes, a clock face, and a moulded open pediment. The southern front is similar, featuring two canted two-storey bays and a projecting porch with a balustraded top. Inside, there is a fine 19th-century curving staircase in an oval stairwell with ornamental plasterwork on the ceiling, a marble fireplace, a modillion cornice in the council chamber, and six-panel doors. A house with a similar plan is depicted on a map from 1787, and further infilling to the rear is shown on a map from 1830.