The Orchards

The Orchards is a house built in 1847 by John Adey Repton for William Repton. It features red brick laid in English bond, a half-timbered first floor, and 20th-century concrete tile roofs. The building is two storeys high with a three-storey tower and has a complex, irregular plan in the Tudor Revival style.

The entrance front faces north and has two gables over the brick ground floor. The left gable includes a five-light transomed casement on the ground floor and a timber-framed first floor with a projecting three-light casement set within decorative framed panels. The right gable-head projects over the ground floor, which has a shouldered stone entrance doorway, while the first floor features a two-light oriel window within decorative timber framing.

The asymmetrical west front has a three-window range with an advanced gable to the left. The ground floor has three two-light casements, with the central casement projecting. The gable features a four-light casement in a lean-to under a sloping roof. The timbered first floor includes a three-light oriel window in the gable and two two-light casements on the main wall to the right. A stack on the far right wall plane terminates in twin octagonal flues with star tops, and there are further ridge stacks at irregular intervals with three and four octagonal star-topped flues.

The south front has a four-window range with projecting gables to the right and left. The right gable has a four-light projecting window, while the left has a canted bay window. There is a projecting three-light casement in the middle of the recessed centre. Each gable on the first floor has a projecting three-light casement of differing design, with two two-light casements flanking a small single light in the centre.

The east front, which faces the street, features a three-storey square tower to the left under a pyramid roof, with the top stage being half-timbered. There is a projecting jettied gable-end to the right and half-timbered main ranges behind, with scattered fenestration of two- and three-light casements. The interior has not been inspected. This building is an important early example of the developed Tudor Revival style.