Great Ness House

Great Ness House is a house dating from the mid-to-late 18th century, with alterations and additions made in the early 19th century. It is constructed of red brick with red sandstone ashlar dressings, and has a two-span slate roof. The house follows a double-depth plan with an early 19th-century service wing attached to the left. The main block is three storeys high and features a plinth, overhanging eaves, and parapeted gable ends with stone copings, shaped stone kneelers. Brick end stacks are located at the external corners. The facade is arranged in a 1:1:1 bay layout; the central bay projects above the eaves and is topped by an open triangular pediment with stone dressings and a painted oculus within a stone architrave. Boxed glazing bar sash windows are present throughout, with 16 panes on the ground floor of the outer bays. The window lintels are of gauged brick, and the sills are painted stone. Blocked basement windows are visible. The service wing is set back and has a hipped slate roof and an integral brick end stack, with two bays and glazing bar sashes, 16-pane to the ground floor.

The right-hand return front of the main block features a central sash window to the first and second floors. A central, early 19th-century entrance is marked by a pair of half-glazed panelled doors with margin lights, accessed via a Greek Doric ashlar porch with paired columns, a full entablature including a frieze with triglyphs and guttae, a moulded cornice with mutules, palmette ornament to the soffit at the corners, and a blocking course. Two stone steps with moulded nosings lead to the door, likely with later side lights with plain surrounds. The rear has three bays, with 2-light wooden casements with segmental heads on the first floor. Ground and first floor sashes are early 19th-century replacements, except for the central first-floor window. Early 19th-century ground-floor bows are present on the left and right sides, each with a pair of curved glazing bar sashes, and a stone frieze, moulded cornice and blocking course.

The interior is largely redecorated in an early 19th-century style. A central staircase hall has an enriched plaster cornice featuring acanthus dentils alternating with paterae, and a central ceiling rose. The late 18th-century dog-leg staircase has an open string, stick balusters (three per tread), a cross-grained ramped handrail, and columnular foot newels, with a panelled side to the lower flight. Early 19th-century doors have panelled architraves with square paterae at corners. A window to the rear has a reeded architrave. An early 19th-century hallway to the right has a cornice with egg and dart enrichment and a reeded soffit with paterae. Some doors retain 18th-century moulded architraves. The dining room features a cornice with mutules, egg and dart, and acanthus enrichment, with windows having reeded architraves, panelled sides, and a reeded pelmet with a large finial at each end. A round archway in the corridor leads to the service wing, featuring a radial fanlight. The first-floor rooms were not inspected.