Four Ashes Hall And Attached Service Range

Four Ashes Hall and Attached Service Range

A small country house with attached service range to the north-west, built in the mid-19th century but incorporating the core of an 18th-century or earlier house. The building is constructed of red brick, some of which was formerly rendered and lined out or painted, with stone dressings. The roofs are slated and tiled, with coped gables featuring moulded kneelers, and diagonally-set ridge and gable stacks with deeply-corbelled caps.

The house is planned in an L-shape, with the attached service range to the north-west enclosing a small courtyard. The entrance front faces north-east. The north-east wing rises to two storeys with attics and spans six bays, with the three bays to the right set back. At the left end stands a gable with two tall blind arches. A wide shallow pointed arch with ashlar surround frames the main doorway, which is set back within it. The doorway has a shouldered head, and above it is a rectangular overlight composed of two ogee-headed lights. On either side of the doorway are tall ogee-headed lights. The ground floor has two 3-light mullioned and transomed windows within ashlar frames, as do the first floor with three windows, all set below string courses. Above, the string course to the first floor is stepped above the window heads. Attic windows sit within steeply-gabled dormers of two or three lights. The three set-back bays contain 2 and 3-light mullioned and transomed windows, and two 2-light gabled dormers.

The south-east elevation facing the garden is dominated by two wide 2-storey bay windows of 4-lights, featuring tall mullions and undivided sash windows, with gabled heads and small attic lights. A set-back double pile range of two bays projects from the left end, topped by a wide central gable. Below this sits a tall glazing bar sash at ground floor level beneath a hood mould, and to the right a doorway with a gabled overlight. The first floor contains two 6-over-6-pane sashes with centred arched heads below hood moulds, and a small attic light within the gable. Asymmetrical gables rise at either end, each with a first-floor sash and a tall sash at ground floor level on the rear gable.

At the north-west corner stands a tall wall that is a remnant of a conservatory, linking the house to an ornamental bantam house with a lean-to roof. The north-east rear wall slopes with ramped ends and features three 6-panel doors, two single lights with diagonal glazing, and above these, five diamond-shaped ventilators of openwork brickwork. The courtyard is enclosed on its north-west side by a service range of two storeys, comprising a 3-bay laundry with a hipped roof and a set-back 2-bay pantry and game larder attached to the rear of the north-east range. Within the courtyard stands a stepped 3-bay 18th-century building with a Dutch gable at the junction of its taller and lower sections.

The interior reveals the formal character of the south-east range, containing a wide hall corridor leading to a staircase lit by a Venetian window. Tall-ceilinged rooms facing the garden feature moulded cornice work, panelled reveals, and sunken shutters. Doors are 6-panelled with architrave surrounds, and moulded skirtings run throughout. Hearths have moulded surrounds, one of which is crinoidal limestone. The library contains fitted furniture. The north-east range accommodates kitchen hearths and servants' quarters, while the service range retains its original fittings.

This mid-19th-century small country house retains unaltered interiors and a complete range of service buildings.