Saint Marys House

Saint Mary's House is an early 19th-century house, now partly offices and a veterinary surgery, situated on the north-east side of Saint Mary’s Street in Whitchurch. The building is constructed of red brick with painted stone dressings and has a hipped slate roof. It is three storeys high and features a plinth, a stone cill band to the first floor, dentil bricks to a thin moulded stone cornice, and a parapet with stone coping. A prominent central one-bay break is marked by a full-height round-arched recess, a stone frieze, and a cornice that rises to a triangular pediment. Pairs of external brick lateral stacks are located to the left (the tops were rebuilt around 1900), and a brick stack is positioned behind the ridge.

The front elevation has a 2:1:2 bay arrangement, with glazing bar sashes featuring painted stone cills and gauged-brick heads. The central bay contains a 6-panelled door with the lower two panels raised and fielded, an upper glazed panel, central beading, a moulded impost band, a wreathed radial fanlight, reveals with raised and fielded panels, and a thin moulded architrave. The door surround includes horizontal-fluted sides, radially-fluted spandrels, flanking fluted strips, a frieze, and a triangular pediment with mutules. Cast-iron bootscrapers are located on either side of the door. A later 19th-century four-panelled door has been inserted replacing a window in the left-hand bay. A former coach house is set back to the right.

Late 19th-century alterations have been made to the coach house, which is two storeys high. It has a ground-floor stone impost band, a chamfered brick cill band, a dentil brick cornice, and a parapet with stone coping. The front has a 1:2 window arrangement. The first floor has plate-glass sashes with painted stone cills and gauged-brick heads. A half-glazed door is set within a round-arched recess to the left, and a blocked inserted carriageway has a painted lintel supported by shaped stone brackets. An inserted paired plate-glass sash completes the right side.

The left-hand return front of the main house features plat bands, a blind second-floor window to the right, and a rainwater head with early 19th-century fluted semi-circular lead. The rear of the house is four bays wide, with boxed glazing bar sashes, the window lighting the staircase in the second bay from the right being lower than the others.

The interior displays very complete early 19th-century fittings and ornament. The entrance hall has a moulded dado rail and an enriched plaster frieze and cornice with triglyphs. The front door has flanking fluted pilasters. A pair of arches, now blocked, lead into the rear staircase hall and consist of fluted pilasters with fluted capitals and moulded architraves. The staircase hall has a moulded plinth, dado rail, and a plaster dentil cornice. An apsidal end contains a cantilevered wooden staircase in one continuous swept flight, with cut brackets, stick balusters (three per tread), a swept handrail, and a fluted square newel post with a moulded cap. The first-floor staircase hall has a plaster frieze enriched with swags and a central plaster ceiling rose with husk garlands. A pair of round arches with fluted pilasters, fluted capitals, and moulded architraves are also present. The left-hand ground-floor front room has an enriched plaster frieze with triglyphs and a soffit. The left-hand ground-floor rear room features an enriched plaster cornice. Early 19th-century six-panelled doors with moulded architraves are found throughout, along with panelled internal window shutters.