Heath House

CHECKLEY

1663/9/130 HOLLINGTON ROAD 03-JAN-67 (South side) Heath House

GV II*

Country house. Circa 1836 by Thomas Johnson of Lichfield for John Burton Phillips (owner of Tean Hall Mills [qv]). Chisel dressed ashlar; slate roofs of steep pitch; verge parapets with steeply pitched copings. Multi, circular shafted ridge and end stacks. Tudor Gothic style, the house a large H-plan with attached service wing of L-shape (and similar size). Entrance front: on side of H and of two tall storeys (taking the height of three storeys to the remainder of the house) banded at first floor and cill level and on moulded plinth. Assymetrical, of five windows mainly labelled 1-, 2-, 2-light casements with chamfered stone mullions and transoms. The centre is dominated by a tall tower rising a further storey to an octagonal pinnacled parapet and with an octagonal stair tower behind of yet another storey; the first floor has a semicircular oriel over a Tudor arched porte cochere with turret pinnacled angles, balustrade and crestings to centres with mock loop holes. Drive (and prospect) front: vast, of three storeys and 3: 3: 3 windows of 1 and lights with projecting gables to sides; the right hand has a 3-sided bay window, the two-storey service wing attached to left of similar style. The interior consistently of Tudor Gothic style is entered via a low vaulted entrance hall which opens into the stair hall, by far the largest room in the house and rising to a lantern in the roof. The stair divides into two flights against the rear wall and rises to an arcaded gallery at first floor level. Almost all the fittings, including the wallpaper are original. The partnership of Johnson and Trubshaw also produced a classical design based on the refacing of the original house. This more chaste design, almost certainly by Trubshaw, was rejected on grounds of the ascendant Tudor Gothic fashion taste.

Listing NGR: SK0264639255