Perrycroft

Perrycroft is a large house begun in 1893 and dated 1895 by the architect C.F.A. Voysey for J. Wilson, a railway magnate. It was constructed in an eclectic style, drawing on Arts and Crafts and incipient Art Nouveau influences. The exterior is roughcast with a grey slate hipped roof at a 45-degree angle, featuring tapered finials to the hip junctions and deep eaves supported by slender iron brackets. There are five chimney stacks, three of which are battered, and one punctured by an arch. The house is arranged in a 'U' shape, with a service wing forming the longer north-east arm; the bottom of the 'U' is the garden front.

The house is two storeys high, with five windows arranged in four groups. The left-hand and central sections of the first floor are advanced. Ground floor windows are metal casements, with 16 and 12 panes, separated by wooden mullions. First floor windows mostly have 12 panes, with one window combining four panes arranged so that each superimposed pane pivots in parallel. The left-hand and central upper windows project and are supported on brackets, following a timber-frame precedent. The entire first floor elevation is cantilevered, appearing to be jettied over the ground floor, and is controlled by battered buttresses to the sides. The main entrance is through a six-panelled door, the top four lights glazed, and is sheltered by a flat canopy. An integral bench is to the left of the entrance, and a retractable roller sun-awning is positioned to the right. A large bell hangs from a bracket supporting the canopy.

The north front, overlooking the garden, features eight-pane glazing bar windows on the ground floor, arranged to the east of the entrance. A band of similar windows is set side by side on the first floor, creating a gallery effect. A flat-roofed porch, supported by two small Tuscan-style columns, leads to an enriched strap-hinged ledged entrance door. A mounting block is situated to the east. The west side of the service wing displays a variety of window combinations with 4, 5, 6, and 8 panes, irregularly placed. There is an entrance through a porch on the north side of a three-story pagoda-like tower, which is accompanied by Romanesque-style balustrading consisting of five marble columns with acanthus capitals, separating Art Nouveau rainwater goods from contrasting austere rendered piers.

The interior features a low entrance hall containing a plain wood open-well staircase with square section balusters. Ground floor fireplaces largely survive unaltered, including those in the entrance hall and kitchen, which incorporate slender integral columns. In the entrance lobby from the garden front is a combined fireplace and cupboard, decorated with strap-hinges depicting peacocks in a Viking Ringerike style. Original ground floor doors remain; first floor doors have been replaced. A safe by Whitfield and Company of Birmingham is present. Wallpaper noted by Pevsner in 1963 has since been removed. The house forms a group with the garden summer-house, walls, dovecote, lodge and stables. This is considered to be one of Voysey's finest works.