Hill Farm

Hill Farm is a farmhouse, now a private house, dating to the 1740s. It was built in a style influenced by Vanburgh, commissioned by Sir Thomas Sebright of Beechwood as an eyecatcher visible from his mansion. A design by Richard Bentley (1751-61) for a “Gothick quatrefoil plan 'House on Hill Farm'” may relate to an unexecuted scheme to remodel the present building into a folly. A rear block, constructed in the late 18th century, likely replaced an older structure, with the 1740s block incorporated alongside it, including its staircase wing. Early 19th-century renovations were also undertaken.

The house is built of red brick in English-bond, with steep hipped roofs covered in old red tiles, and slate roofs to the turrets behind the parapets. It is a tall, two-and-a-half-storey building with a cellar, and features a castellated design with a rectangular turret at each end of its west front. The plan includes end-chimneys, a central entrance, and a passage leading to the rear staircase. The northern side contains the main kitchen/room, while the southern side incorporates a parlour. The rear block, added in the late 18th century, housed the kitchen and dairy, along with a servant's staircase.

The symmetrical west front has three windows across two storeys, with the turrets extending one stage higher. It includes a plinth, torus plat band, and an arched, coved eaves cornice. Large, sunk, plastered, cross-shaped arrow loops are positioned three to each turret. Brick labels are present above the doorway and first-floor window. Flush-box sash windows with 6/6 panes and segmental arches are a characteristic feature. A 3-light casement is above the door, and two pointed arched Gothick casement windows are found in the southern end of the south turret, suggesting the front windows may originally have had pointed arches. The four-panel flush-beaded door is set within a heavy frame and a flat hood. A coved and arcaded cornice runs around the turrets and across the chimneys projecting north and south. A double dentilled course tops the corbelled section, with an ovolo offset between. A similar corbel course with a single course of dentilled headers is located on the rear two-storey and attic section of the main block, with segmental arches to the 3-light casement windows. A lower two-storey, three-window rear wing, facing east, has a hipped roof and a projecting porch located off-centre. A long, single-storey brick and tile range of outbuildings joins the north end at an acute angle and connects to a barn to the northeast.

The interior includes a closed string staircase with heavy turned balusters and heavy square newels. A wide fireplace is present in the north room, featuring a wooden lintel under a relieving arch. Grates with fluted surrounds, dating around 1840, are found in the front bedrooms, while a plain marble fireplace is in the parlour.