Balls Grove

Balls Grove is a large house built in 1906–7 for C.E. Inglis, located in Grantchester. It is constructed of rough-cast brick with a brick plinth and a plain tile roof featuring various brick ridge and end stacks. The house is designed in the Vernacular Revival style with Jacobean style elements, notably the entrance frontespiece and leaded light casements throughout. It is two storeys with an attic.

The entrance front features a distinctive central projecting Jacobean style frontespiece of two storeys, flanked by facing gables with catslide roofs. The frontespiece projects further at its centre as a two-storey porch with a wooden pediment and tile roof behind. The porch itself is flat-roofed. Continuous leaded light glazing runs across the first floor of the frontespiece and around the porch, with glazing extending down one side to light the lower flight of the staircase. The porch has a pair of small columns in antis to either side and leads to the front door. The remaining frontage contains casements and mullion and transom windows, with three two-light gabled dormers positioned over the frontespiece.

The left end elevation has two-light casements to the first floor and three-light casements to the attic, with a single-storey extension at ground floor level. The right end has three two-light casements to the first floor and four-light casements to the attic, along with a canted bay and single-storey extension at ground floor level.

The garden front displays a central projecting loggia with later glazing and carved window and door frames inscribed with the initials CEI and EI and the date AD 1907. A five-light casement sits above, with a flat-roofed three-light dormer high in the roof. On either side rise three-storey canted bays that continue through the eaves and have weatherboarding to the top gable ends. To the far right of this front is the projecting single-storey section with a four-light casement above and a three-light flat-roofed dormer set high in the roof.

Internally, a panelled porch leads to a large hall, double-height in part, with the staircase hall flowing into it to the left. The hall features limed oak raised and fielded panelling and a stone fireplace with tile interior, brass Art Nouveau style grilles and ornament. The open-well staircase, with stick balustrade featuring diagonally placed balusters, leads to a fine gallery that continues across the porch and cloaks, looking down into the hall and lit by the continuous glazing of the frontespiece. The gallery is lined on the hall side by an arcade of square wooden piers and features a stick balustrade similar to the staircase.

The drawing room has painted framed panelling with dentil cornice; the fireplace within the inglenook was replaced in the 1960s. The dining room has painted framed panelling and a bolection moulded stone fireplace with a 1960s insert. The main staircase continues from the gallery to the attic with panelling to its walls. Some first floor and attic fireplaces remain; the fireplace to the centre of the first floor retains its painted surround and blue tiling. Back stairs connect the ground floor to the attic.

Balls Grove is a well-detailed house of its period with an unusual frontespiece and many fine interior features, including an impressive staircase hall.