Ness Strange (Flats 1-8) Ness Strange Stables

Ness Strange is a small country house, now divided into flats, with an adjoining service wing. The main house was built in 1778 for Rowland Edwards Esq., with probable early 19th-century alterations and additions, and further alterations and additions dated 1900.

The house is constructed in red brick with some grey sandstone ashlar dressings, and has two-span slate roofs. It stands at right angles to the road, with the service wing adjoining to the north-west. The main block rises to three storeys, with the service wing at two storeys and a gable-lit attic.

The south-west (entrance) front features a stone plinth, first-floor stone cill band, stone frieze and moulded cornice, and a parapet with stone coping. The front displays pairs of integral brick end stacks and pairs of brick ridge stacks. It is arranged in 3:2:3 bays, with a pair of full-height canted bays. Windows are glazing bar sashes with gauged brick heads and stone cills. A pair of central ground-floor sashes, with red sandstone lintels, replaced the former entrance, which was relocated to the service wing either in the early 19th century or around 1900—the difference in brick colour confirms this alteration. A lead downpipe to the left bears a semi-circular rainwater head with moulded cornice, a lion motif, and the date 1778.

The right-hand return front shows 4 bays, mostly with blind windows. The rear elevation displays 4 by 3 bays, with a full-height half-octagonal bay to the right, dated 1900, with sashes featuring red sandstone lintels. Lead downpipes flank this bay; the right-hand downpipe has a rainwater head dated 1778 (probably resited when the bay was added), and the left-hand pipe bears a rainwater head dated 1900. The entrance in the third bay from the left features a 6-panelled door with 4 upper panels raised and fielded and 2 lower panels beaded flush, panelled reveals and soffit, moulded architrave, and remains of brackets to a moulded cornice. It is surrounded by a later grey sandstone ashlar surround, possibly dating to around 1900, with unfluted pilasters, frieze, cornice, blocking course, and a second cornice above.

The service wing has a plinth, dentil brick eaves cornice (double toothed-brick eaves cornice to the rear), and a parapeted gable end with stone coping. Front and rear ranges carry brick ridge stacks and integral brick end stacks respectively. The south-west front of the service wing contains 6 bays with glazing bar sashes having grey sandstone cills and red sandstone lintels. Two first-floor blind windows appear to the left. A resited 18th-century door and doorcase occupy the second bay from the right, featuring a 6-panelled door (upper 4 panels raised and fielded, lower 2 beaded flush) and a radial fanlight with husk garlands. The doorcase is executed in grey sandstone ashlar in the Doric order, comprising side lights with lugged and shouldered architraves, frieze and cornice with mutules, and a centre section breaking forwards with unfluted three-quarter columns flanking the door and supporting sections of entablature with triglyph frieze and open triangular pediment above. A four-panelled door with a 2-part rectangular overlight, probably inserted in place of a former window, occupies the second bay from the left. The left-hand gable end contains 4 bays with sashes in the attic.

The interior of the main block, partly inspected, reveals a rear entrance hall containing a late 18th or early 19th-century three-flight staircase with landings, open string, fluted stick balusters (two per tread), and a ramped handrail wreathed to a columnular foot newel. A panelled segmental arch with fluted imposts and carved brackets frames the staircase. Panelled window shutters have been noted in other rooms.

Ness Strange was formerly the seat of the Edwards family. The service wing appears to date to the early 19th century, though it remains unclear whether the 18th-century doorcase was resited then or around 1900. Both the sashes in the service wing and the bay at the rear are dated 1900 by their red sandstone lintels, which could suggest the service wing is also of 1900, though this seems unlikely. The service wing is now known as Ness Strange Stables. Stable buildings to the south-west of the house are not included on this list, with the exception of the former granary and cartshed.