Berkley House

Berkley House is an early 19th-century house, extended in the 19th century. It is timber-framed, with a stucco finish and some weatherboarding, and has a slate roof. The building has a rectangular plan, facing northwest. There is an external brick stack at the left end, now enclosed by the adjacent property, and an internal stack at the right. A large lean-to has been added to the rear, with a roof of handmade red clay tiles, along with a 19th-century single-storey lean-to extension to the right, which was extended further with a flat roof in the 20th century. The house is three stories high. The ground floor has two original sash windows with 8 lights each. The first floor has two similar sashes, and a central sash of 6 lights. The second floor has two sashes with 10 lights each, and a central sash with 8 lights. A central six-panel door, with four glazed panels, is set within a Tuscan portico featuring plain columns, pilasters, and a moulded cornice with mutules, and is accessed by a single stone step with a 19th-century cast-iron boot scraper. A plaster band runs along the second-floor level, and there are paired brackets supporting wide, overhanging eaves. Original cast-iron rainwater gutters with lions' heads are present at the junctions. The roof has a shallow pitch. The elevation is symmetrical, except for a plastered pier which runs the full height of the right return. The left stack is cement-rendered. The rear elevation has, on the ground floor of the lean-to, one original sash window with 6 lights, and on the second floor two original sashes with 6 lights; it is weatherboarded above the lean-tos. A large 20th-century dormer with a flat roof is visible in the roof of the larger lean-to. Inside, the entrance hall has doors with fluted surrounds and carved top corners, with a similar surround to the front door itself. Ground-floor rooms on either side have original folding shutters within the window splay, panelled soffits, and plastered transverse beams. An original staircase rises the full height, with turned newels, stick balusters, and moulded handrails, although the rail and balusters have been renewed in the top left corner. Boxed transverse beams are above the first-floor rooms. A four-panel door with HL hinges leads to the left first-floor room.