Innisdoon And Attached Garden Wall And Gate Piers

INNISDOON AND ATTACHED GARDEN WALL AND GATE PIERS

House with attached service wing and flat, boundary wall and gate piers, built 1904-05 by architects Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin for Walter Barringer of Mansfield. The building exemplifies the Arts and Crafts style with white painted roughcast walls, hipped and gabled plain tile roofs carrying two ridge stacks and a single side wall stack. The plan is irregular and triangular, arranged over two storeys across three bays.

The northern entrance front is dominated by a central jettied gable containing a 6-light window that overhangs a deeply recessed, splayed entrance. The wooden lintel bears a Gaelic inscription and the initials "WB-LB 1905". The entrance door is half-glazed and flanked by three small square windows. To its right are two similar windows, and to the left an angled corridor with three single windows. An angled bay with a single small window rises to a stack with four square flues set diagonally.

The western garden front features a continuous 16-light first-floor window, four lights of which have transoms. Below runs a full-width tiled hipped canopy sheltering a central French window, flanked left by a 3-light wooden-framed window and right by two larger windows. Beyond on either side are canted bay windows with 4 lights each. The left return has two 2-light windows above, with four single windows below.

The south front comprises, to the left, a triple gabled projection with three 4-light windows. Below this sits an attached greenhouse on the left and four reglazed windows to the right. The rear wing extends eastward with an elliptical-arched carriage opening, above which stand a 2-light and a 3-light window. On the opposite side is a 3-light window above the arch with a similar window to its right, and below are two single windows. Beneath the archway are two small windows and a door on each side. A two-storey service wing projects to the south-east with a lower hipped garage at its south end. A large side wall stack adjoins the carriage arch; to the right stands a large flat-roofed through-eaves dormer and a smaller dormer beneath the eaves.

The boundary wall to the south is built of coursed squared stone with half-round coping and is flanked by a pair of vermiculated square gate piers.

Interior detailing is attributed to Cecil Hignett. A polygonal lobby opens into a two-storey central hall with galleried landings. The hall contains a fitted settle and a limestone fireplace with segmental arch and an enormous floriated keystone. The wooden dogleg staircase has pierced splat balusters. A dining recess features folding double doors opening to the former schoolroom on one side and double sliding doors on the other. The sliding doors incorporate exposed wrought-iron hangers and tracks; both door sets display six small leaded lights with stylised flower designs. The living room preserves an inglenook fireplace with curved brass hood. The former schoolroom contains a fireplace with copper hood and recessed ashbox. Original fitted cupboards and a settle remain in the former kitchen. A first-floor library features an oriel window with leaded glazing overlooking the hall. Throughout the interior, wrought-iron latches, locks, hinges, stained glass and carving form an integral part of the original design scheme.

The house represents an important and substantially unaltered example of the architectural partnership between Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin. Late twentieth-century alterations have been made.