The Gardens

The Gardens is a house built around 1800, constructed of red brick with a hipped grey slate roof and chimney stacks on both the right and left sides. The building has two storeys and a basement, featuring three bays plus an additional bay on the right. It has a four-window range of small paned vertically sliding sashes, with gauged brick arches over the left bays and a segmental head over the ground floor right window. A stepped approach leads to a four-panel, two-light door that has a fluted surround, a frieze decorated with fret and patera, and a flat canopy, with a simple door to the right. The rear wall displays ornate stone brackets that once supported a vinery. Historically, this property was part of the Norman family estate and was owned by Canon Norman. The Earl of Oxford used it as collateral to raise a mortgage around 1820. An attached vinery to the south of the property has recently been demolished; it was one of several, and the 19th-century owner claimed he could have grapes every day of the year.