Hill House

Hill House is a house, now used as a school boarding house, dating to 1800. It was built for the Reverend J. T. Becher and has later additions from the mid-19th century and late 19th century. The house is constructed of brick with stone dressings and has hipped slate roofs. Features include a plinth, bands at the first floor and sill level, dentilled eaves, and five ridge stacks. The main east front features a projecting pedimented centre and a symmetrical arrangement of ten glazing bar sashes, with five larger sashes above and five smaller ones. All the windows have multi-keystoned heads. A canted bay window dated 1857, with three plain sashes, is located to the left on the ground floor, and three plain sashes are to the right. The northern entrance front includes a projecting wing with three windows on the ground floor, two of which are blank. Above, the fenestration mirrors this, with smaller windows. A flat-roofed porch with Tuscan columns and an entablature shelters a half-glazed door from the mid-19th century, flanked by side lights and an overlight. A recessed two-story service wing is visible to the right, with a pebbledashed finish. The south side has two hipped blocks, each with three windows, and a mid-19th century single-story addition with an angled corner and three plain sashes. A late-19th century hipped loggia with two stone columns is also present. The interior contains a central staircase with a cantilever stone staircase for the upper flight, transitioning to wood, with a moulded string, stick balusters, a ramped and scrolled handrail, and a glazed toplight. The north side has panelled and moulded, round-headed openings. The dining room, on the left of the east front, has moulded wall panels, a cornice, and a Classical wooden fireplace with fluted piers. John Thomas Becher, who held the position of prebendary of South Muskham from 1819 to 1848, was involved in Poor Law reform.