The Vineyard

The Vineyard is a large Victorian mansion built in 1864. Designed by William Beck for local banker William Tuke, it is constructed of red brick with stone dressings, and has a slate roof. It is an example of the high Victorian Gothic style, characterised by polychrome decoration, projecting gables, one and 1-storey bay windows, gable dormers, and a stair turret. Decorative features include corbelled brick eaves and windows with Venetian Gothic detailing. The windows are a mix of 1 and 4-light designs, some with 2-centre arched heads and square heads, colonnette mullions, mullions and transoms, and some with trefoiled tracery and head moulds.

The interior remains largely unaltered, with principal rooms leading off an east-facing hall. The hall has an ashlar fireplace (now painted) with a deep canopy, a quarter-turn timber staircase with carved splats and quatre-foil tracery, and a Venetian gallery on the first floor featuring marble columns with acanthus leaf capitals that support 2-centred arches with moulded soffits. Further detail includes a carved stone cornice with carved corbels supporting carved timber bridging joists and a timber panelled ceiling. A full-height 4-light east window, constructed of stone with 3 mullions and a transom, has trefoiled heads, leaded quarries with coloured glass margin lights and roundels. The drawing room has a 4-light window that once opened into a conservatory (now demolished) with serpentine colonnettes and carved stone capitals, spandrels, and cornice. The drawing room also has a carved stone fireplace with a panel containing figures above the mantel, along with softwood timber cornices and a molded timber panel ceiling. Other rooms retain their original features, including purpose-designed fireplaces (some with Dutch tiles), softwood 6-panelled doors with chamfered rails and stiles, and timber panelled ceilings.