Shustoke Hall Farmhouse

Shustoke Hall Farmhouse is a manor house situated on a moated site, dating from circa 1686. It is constructed of red brick in a Flemish bond pattern, with a squared and coursed sandstone plinth. The roof is plain-tiled, featuring a wooden modillion eaves cornice. It has symmetrically disposed stacks with pilasters to the two shafts and a cogged brick string course. The house follows a double-pile plan and has two storeys and an attic, with three 20th-century gable dormers. The symmetrical façade of five bays is divided by three brick plat bands. There are five bays of late 20th-century cross-frame wooden casements in original openings, each with flat arches of gauged and rubbed brickwork. Similar windows are found at ground floor level, flanking a central doorway approached by a flight of four sandstone steps, which are segmented on plan. The doorway itself has a moulded sandstone surround with a flat hood supported by large scroll brackets of sandstone. The door has two bolection moulded X-shaped panels and retains its original wrought iron door furniture and fittings, including an escutcheon, ornamental plate to the ring knocker, lock, and fleur-de-lys strap hinges. The south side of the building has three similar 20th-century windows in original openings, and a central doorway, now sealed, with another original flat canopy on scroll brackets. The north wall mirrors the fenestration. Adjoining the farmhouse to the east is a late 18th-century cottage, which previously served as a service wing. It is constructed of red brick with a plain-tiled half-hipped roof and a ridge stack, and stands two storeys high with three first-floor wooden casements. The interior features an open-well staircase with seven flights and a landing, exhibiting turned balusters, a toads-back rail, and a square newel. Throughout the house, doors are of two bolection moulded panels. The parlour is lined with late 17th-century bolection moulded panelling, arranged in two heights with a dado and double cornice. It contains a bolection moulded fireplace with a mantel, and the overmantel displays an original panel painting of a classical subject depicting a hunter offering a boar's head to a woman. An overdoor painting, also on panel, portrays putti playing with dogs, lances, and drums. Two rooms on the first floor also have bolection moulded fireplaces. An attic room, designated a cheese room, has a plaster floor. The house was built for Thomas Huntbach circa 1686, who resided there until his death in 1712.