The Dene

The Dene is a large house dating from 1895-6, designed by W.H. Bidlake and built by William Bishop. It is constructed of red brick in English bond to the ground floor, with tile-hanging to much of the first floor and structural timber framing to the rest. The roof is tiled. The house comprises a main east-west range, a cross-wing to the east of the south front, and a cross-wing to the east and west of the north front. It has two storeys and an attic.

The windows are flat-arched with wooden frames, casements, and leaded lights. A two-storey porch is positioned in the angle of the main range and the southern cross-wing, featuring a round-arched entrance to an inner porch with double doors. The porch’s first floor has a two-light window, a parapet topped with a small pitched, timber-framed roof and a ball finial. The main range incorporates a shallow, bracketed canted oriel window on the ground floor, set beneath the jettying of the first floor. The southern cross-wing has a bracketed and canted oriel of five lights; its upper storey is timber-framed and jettied. The west front features a five-sided, single-storey canted bay window with a hipped roof, and an external brick stack with breaks at the junction of gable and cave. The western cross-wing on the north front is largely blank, with only a small attic window. A small, gabled staircase wing, with timber framing on the upper storey, is found in the angle of the main range and the eastern cross-wing. This eastern cross-wing acts as a service wing, lacking tile-hanging on the upper storey, and has a single-storey gabled extension at its north end. A door on the west side and a window on the north side of this wing were added around 1991. The cast front also has an external stack and some timber framing to the first floor. The stacks have upper square sections set lozengewise and have been slightly lowered.

Internally, much of the original detail remains, including architraves and three-panelled doors. The hall contains a fireplace with a rounded brick arch, an original copper firehood and a fixed settle. A screen fronts the staircase, which rises in two flights under a round arch with a square newel and oak balusters on the upper flight. The dining room has a four-centred brick-arched fireplace with a raised mantel. The drawing room features a fireplace recess with flanking benches and a simple Classical chimneypiece. The morning room retains an original fireplace with a double shelf and the kitchen area has been altered.