Hobland House

Hobland House

House dating from the 18th century, substantially enlarged and remodelled in the early 19th century, with further alterations and extensions in the late 19th century and again in the 20th century. Built in Flemish bond red brick with a Welsh slate roof featuring gabled ends and a wooden modillion eaves cornice. The chimney stacks are of brick with yellow clay pots.

The original 18th-century house had a single-depth two-room plan, which now comprises the central hall and right-hand dining room. During the early 19th-century enlargement, another principal room was added at the left end with a large bedchamber above. The original left-hand room became the central entrance hall with a staircase positioned at the back. A large two-storey outshut was constructed at the rear to accommodate service rooms, with the kitchen positioned to the right. In the late 19th century, the left-hand rear rooms were extended by the addition of bays, and the pantry and scullery were relocated to a single-storey outshut on the right side. A Second World War air raid shelter is attached to the front of the side outshut, and a conservatory with a flat roof was added to the left of the front elevation in the late 20th century.

The house is three storeys tall. The symmetrical south-facing front has three widely-spaced windows. The ground and first floors feature later 19th-century sash windows with margin panes and flat brick arches, while the second floor retains early 19th-century eight-pane sashes. Flanking the central doorway are two small 19th-century round-headed sashes with margin panes; the left-hand one and the window to its left now serve as new doorways within the late 20th-century conservatory. The central doorway is fronted by a fine early 19th-century wooden portico with Tuscan columns featuring fluted necking and supporting an entablature canopy. The fanlight is rectangular with patterned lead tracery, and the door itself is a 20th-century replacement. The reveals are panelled. At the right of the front, the Second World War air raid shelter projects with embattled coping. The left end features a single-storey canted bay window with egg-and-dart cornice. At the rear, the roof extends over the two-storey outshut, which contains various sash windows and, to the right, two single-storey bays.

Most of the 19th-century interior joinery survives, including panelled window shutters and panelled doors of both early and later 19th-century date. The first and second floors retain 18th-century two-panel doors. The early 19th-century staircase at the back of the hall features an open string with scrolled tread ends, stick balusters, and a moulded mahogany handrail with an ivory inlaid circle on the wreathed curtail above a column newel. The hall's moulded doorframes have segmental heads and a 20th-century chimneypiece. The left-hand drawing room has a 20th-century Tudor-style chimneypiece. The right-hand dining room retains a moulded plaster cornice with a reeded ceiling border. The rear left-hand room has a moulded plaster cornice and an early 20th-century mahogany chimneypiece. The dairy or pantry features slate shelves. The main west bedchamber has a high ceiling with a moulded cornice and reeded border punctuated by rosettes at intervals. Two large doorways with fluted architraves and large six-panel doors open from this room, and it contains a white marble chimneypiece with detached Tuscan columns. The cellar is brick vaulted.