The Hayes

The Hayes is a hunting lodge, later converted into a house, dating from the mid-17th century, with subsequent additions and alterations. It is constructed of regularly coursed sandstone rubble, with a slate roof featuring coped verges, stone kneelers, and ball finials to the gables. The building has a cruciform plan, with a late 19th-century addition (re-roofed in the late 20th century) situated in the angle between the right and rear gables. The house has two storeys and attics, with a moulded eaves cornice, a chamfered plinth, and cellarage beneath. Mullioned windows are present in the cellar, while the front and rear gables feature cross-windows. The right gable has three-light mullioned and transomed windows to both the ground and first floors, along with a cross-window in the attic. The front gable showcases double-chamfered cross-windows to the left and right of the front door on both floors, with one window in the centre of the attic. A four-centred arched doorway, approached by a flight of five steps, has enriched spandrels and a moulded label, alongside a nail-studded door with scrolled strap hinges, an original knocker, and lock. A two-storey canted bay to the left gable incorporates seven-light mullioned and transomed windows on each floor, believed to be a later 17th-century addition. A brick segmental-headed doorway is located on the rear gable (left side), and a flat-headed doorway on the left gable (rear side), the latter having been converted from a mullioned window that previously lit the cellar. A prominent central ridge stack features ten attached octagonal brick shafts, now roughcast. The 19th-century addition includes mullioned and cross-windows, likely re-used from the rear and right gables during the addition’s construction. Internally, the main ground and first-floor rooms are panelled with mid-17th-century oak rectangular panelling, incorporating decorative carving in some areas. A moulded stone fireplace with a four-centred arch is found in the ground-floor room of the left gable. Another fireplace, located on the opposite side of the stack and in the centre of the house, has been infilled but retains a richly carved Jacobean overmantel depicting grotesque human figures. The overmantel in the main first-floor room bears the date "D/RM/1656". An open-well staircase rising from the ground floor to the attic appears to be 19th-century, but it is likely in the original staircase position. Several 17th-century plank doors are present, accompanied by 19th-century cast-iron grates to some fireplaces.