Homestall And Flats 1 And 2

Homestall and Flats 1 and 2

A large house, now subdivided into three dwellings, standing on the north side of The Mount in Barley. The building has origins in the 16th and 17th centuries but was largely rebuilt and extended around 1900, with a further extension in 1913 designed by B. Parker for R.N. Salaman.

The core structure is timber-framed and probably originally consisted of only two bays with a stack, with two additional bays added in the 17th century on the same axis. The building has been extended in brick and now presents a complex composition with roughcast and weatherboarded surfaces, some tile hanging, and tiled roofs. The c.1900 extension is rendered in a smooth finish with thin dark red brick, while the c.1900 work is executed in Domestic Revival style and the 1913 wing in Arts and Crafts style. The building is of two storeys with attic accommodation, with later extensions at both ends appearing as crosswings.

The entrance front is dominated by the earliest bays, with a short twin gabled c.1900 projection to the right of centre featuring a central plank and muntin door with a bracketed hood, casement windows with some leaded lights, and a notably large eight-light mullion and transom window with decorative leaded rainwater pipes and a corbelled-out stack. A low outbuilding projects further forward with a bargeboarded gable and an attached tile-coped L-shaped wall. The 17th-century bays to the left have a slightly higher ridge. The ground floor features a lean-to addition with an entrance to the left in a gabled porch with part-glazed doors and bargeboards. The first floor has weatherboarding, and in the roof slope is a two-light box dormer and an axial stack adjoining the earliest bays, rebuilt on an early base. To the left is a c.1900 two-storey staircase wing with a hipped roof and a six-light casement window with an ogee head to the central lower light. Further left is a c.1900 crosswing projecting slightly further, similarly fenestrated with tile hanging in a bargeboarded gable. The left return includes a ground floor bay window with a six-light casement. A large extruded stack with five diagonal shafts has an attached gabled office wing of one storey with moulded ogee heads to the windows.

To the rear, the garden elevation of the main wing has a two-storey canted bay window with similar fenestration and tile hanging, with a projecting gable. Two bays to the left have one-storey and full-height projecting bows with French windows, a gabled dormer, and a small c.1900 ridge stack. Earlier and lower bays further left have an entrance and flush-frame casements, some with leaded lights.

The 1913 wing, originally designed to accommodate servants and nurseries and now containing two flats, is sited to the far left and faces away from the rest of the house on its principal elevation. This elevation displays four windows informally arranged as two and three-light flush-frame casements with leaded panes, and three large two-light hipped dormers. It has a brick plinth with a continuous tile dripmould over the ground floor. The entrance is set in a deep recess to the right of centre, flanked by a massive brick stack and a water-cum-viewing tower. The entrance recess is framed by stylised engaged columns in brick with recessed pointing, tiled and dentilled capitals, decorative brick flooring, and a plank and muntin door. The extruded stack to the right is very tall, featuring articulated brick shafts and bands with recessed pointing and a tile frieze with dentilled brick continuing from the capital in the entrance bay. The tower to the left projects slightly with similar brickwork and small paired casements at three levels up to the viewing stage, which is corbelled out and features an open timber square with further projecting glazed sections to the centre of each side flanked by paired round arches. Deep eaves with a concave pagoda roof support a small open cupola, above which rises a copper trumpet spirelet with weathervane. To the right of the stack, the ground floor was originally open as a stoep with brick columniation matching that in the entrance bay, with paired columns on the return and decorative brick paving inside; this is now partly enclosed as a garage. Ornamental rainwater goods bear the date 1913 and initials 'RNS/NRS'. The right bay rises to a half-hip over an attic. On the right return above the stoep is a full-height shallow segmental six-light bow window with leaded lights, tile hanging, and a projecting half-hip. The furthest bay to the left beyond the tower has a lower ridge with a large external stack on the gable end of the taller bays. The left return has two ground floor plank and muntin doors with radiating tiled surrounds and an attic light below a projecting half-hip. Inner returns to the earlier block have one and two-light casements and two-light dormers.

The interior of the early range retains some exposed framing, featuring close studding and tension braces, jowled posts with arched braces, and a chamfered binding beam. The c.1900 wing displays neo-Baroque and neo-Adam interiors including a strapwork plaster ceiling in a vaulted passage, a fireplace in a recessed arch with framing pilasters, panelling, barley sugar rails, an Ionic screen with segmental arches, plaster ceilings, Solomonic columns, and a panelled staircase with vase balusters and Art Nouveau plates on doors. The c.1913 wing has simple interiors with a window seat with cupboards in a shallow bow window.