Hill House

Hill House

A large house of 1907 designed by Edgar Wood and J.H. Sellers, located on the east side of Bakers Lane in Barley. It is built of thin red bricks with Bath stone and marble dressings, featuring an asphalted reinforced concrete roof. The design exemplifies the Edwardian Free Style. The building comprises an axial rectangular main block with a service wing to the left, forming an L-shaped plan.

The house is two storeys tall. The entrance elevation features a central three-window range slightly recessed, with the service wing extending forward to the left. A plinth runs along the base. Curved steps lead to the central entrance, which is finished with bead mouldings on the door, featuring a lower fielded panel and upper traceried glazing with circular leaden panes. Flanking margin lights with panels below frame the doorway. The reveal has marble jambs and soffit. An outer stone architrave surrounds the entrance, with the lintel slightly bowed out and dentilled, bearing the date 1907. Flanking three-light flush-moulded leaded-light casements flank the entrance. Three closely spaced similar windows appear on the first floor. A pierced stone coping forms a parapet that steps down slightly towards the centre. The projecting section to the right displays a plain wall with a single two-light casement on the first floor. Below it runs recessed brick dentillation topped by a plain stone coped parapet stepping down between corner blocks. All return angles feature triple rebates with a centrally hollow moulding. The left section exhibits similar detailing. Two cross-axial stone-coped stacks flank the centre block.

The right return steps back towards the garden. At the front, ground-floor mullion and transom casements of ten lights are flanked by cross casements. The first floor has three-light casements in the outer bays, with 1:3:1-light fenestration further towards the garden. These are transomed on the ground floor. The parapet matches that of the front right.

The garden elevation has a slightly recessed centre section with a plain coped parapet of slightly greater height. A central entrance features a plank-and-muntin door set back within a stone architrave, topped by a projecting stone hood that tapers to lower dentillation. Above it stands a tall leaded casement with moulded stone panels below and above, displaying the date and crenellations, all recessed. Tall two-light casements flank the entrance. To the left, two bays contain ground-floor cross casements and first-floor two-light casements. To the right, a ground-floor fourteen-light transomed casement sits below a first-floor five-light casement. Recessed dentillation beneath the parapet coping appears on the outer sections. Stacks rise at the rear angles of the main block. The right return from the garden features a full-height shallow bow set back towards the garden with an extruded stack and rebated corners, flanked by single-light casements. Towards the front, a ground-floor ten-light transomed casement is present. Dentillation below the coping to the parapet steps down between corner blocks.

The interior contains a groin-vaulted vestibule and a full-height central hall with a segmental balcony supported by turned balusters. Simple classical mouldings and fireplaces complete the scheme.

The service wing extends forward to the front left. Originally constructed as a single storey, it was raised to two storeys. Its inner elevation displays two bays, with the nearer to the house featuring a double set back and a large round-headed doorway to the service yard, with an oculus above and three-light casements to the left. The plain front wall contains a single two-light casement. The outer elevation has three and four-light casements. A one-storey section at the rear of the service yard contains a segmental-headed door, with a second door to its rear.

The building was formerly known as Dalny Veed, a Russian phrase meaning 'pleasant view'.