Margaret House Including Forecourt Walls

Margaret House is a former Rectory, now an old people’s home, built between 1831 and 1838 by A. Salvin for Rev. W.H. Turner. It was altered in the late 19th century. The building is constructed of red brick with tiled roofs and is a large, asymmetrical structure with multiple gables in a simple Jacobethan style. It has two storeys and an attic, with a five-window front. The outer bays project, each with a gable. The windows are predominantly three-light casements in chamfered surrounds with gauged brick flat arched heads; the first floor windows have lattice lights. Attic windows are two-light casements, and the gables include brick kneelers and outer steps. A smaller gable to the left of centre houses the stair wing, which features a large, first-floor hexagonal window with nine lights, leaded glass, and a similar parapet. The central entrance and a bay to the right are recessed, with a first-floor lattice cross casement and projecting brick courses to close the eaves. A later 19th-century stuccoed porch is located within the recess of the central entrance, featuring a distyle in antis marbled Doric columns supporting segmental arches and a cornice. The porch contains a part-glazed door with a four-centred arched head and a cross casement. A central, cross-axial ridge stack features two diagonal shafts. The right return of the house has external stacks with offsets and diagonal shafts towards the rear, along with a service entrance and lattice casements. The left return has three bays, with a ground-floor canted bay window to the left and tall cross casements above. The first floor features dual sash windows, with three lights to the left, and two-light attic casements. Gables are positioned over each bay, that to the left being larger and all featuring parapets. A cross-axial ridge stack with four diagonal shafts is positioned to the left of centre. The rear of the building has a canted bay window to the left on the ground floor, and a large conservatory with a projecting gabled porch to the two bays to the right. The first floor has dual sash windows. Small gables are positioned over the outer bays, with a cross-axial ridge stack to the left of centre, again featuring four diagonal shafts. In the inner angle of a further extending service wing to the left is a three-storey block with a taller, plain parapet. An extruded stack is located on the rear gable end of the service wing, and there is a single-storey outbuilding with a slate roof. The interior includes a dogleg staircase with barley sugar balusters, capped newel posts, a moulded handrail, bolection moulded door surrounds, and marble fireplaces. Red brick walls extend from the front to enclose a forecourt. To the right are entrances to a service passage (with a four-centred arched head) and to the churchyard (with a segmental head), with two doors to the left. The walls have segmental brick coping. Corner piers have moulded capping. Ramps down at the ends lead to the front section of six bays, which is open to the centre. Central piers have chamfered caps and bases, neck bands, and rebated corners, with pilasters between the bays and a cogged brick course below the coping. 20th-century additions to the front left are not considered to be of special interest. The forecourt walls extend to the right, including entrances to a service passage and the churchyard, defined by a four-centred arched head and a segmental head, respectively. Corner piers display moulded capping. Ramps descend to the front, and the walls are topped with segmental brick coping.