Tatmore Place

Tatmore Place is a country house, built in 1908 by John Belcher for Sir Joseph Child Priestley. It is now used as a laboratory and offices, having been adapted for non-domestic use since 1939. The house is constructed of red brick with blue headers in English-bond, stone dressings, and windows, with steep slate roofs in graduated courses. It is a compact, large, two-storey and attic house in an Early English Renaissance revival style, situated within its own grounds facing east and north.

The house is L-shaped, with tall stone mullioned and transomed windows. Brick chimneys have two pilaster strips on each face. A single-storey, hipped rear service wing is present. Moulded stone doorways feature four-centred arched heads. The east entrance front is symmetrical, with a projecting two-storey and attic central porch flanked by two-storey semi-octagonal bay windows. The entrance itself has a round arch with splayed reveals, a double keystone, and steps leading to a half-glazed double door. A Doric stone order is used on the ground floor, with an Ionic order on the first floor, topped by a triangular pediment. The gable parapet of the porch features corbelled kneelers, a finial, and balls. The upper parts of the windows are round-headed, with transoms to the ground floor windows. Stone string courses run along the exterior. An armorial crest is positioned above the entrance, and ‘1908’ is inscribed on the rainwater heads alongside a badge.

The north front is terraced, with two-storey rectangular bay windows at each end, a gabled central section with a semi-octagonal bay, and a single window on each side. The interior is planned around a central staircase. The oak stair has moulded and splat balusters and is arcaded at ground floor level. A large, five-light stained glass window illuminates the staircase. The entrance hall has a segmental arched, panelled stone floor and a prominent cornice. Heavy oak, three-panel doors are set in deep, moulded doorcases. The drawing room, located a few steps down from the ground floor, features a ceiling of heavy moulded beams and joists creating a coffered effect, panelled to three-quarter height. The upper part of the elaborate Jacobean-style chimneypiece is openwork, and the doors are elaborately panelled.