Sutherland House

Sutherland House is a house dating to around 1886, designed by E J May for a member of the Barclay family. It is constructed of red brick in a Flemish bond pattern, with moulded brick dressings, applied timber framing, and tile hanging to the gables. The house has axial stacks with tall brick shafts incorporating moulded caps, some with buttressed bases, and steeply pitched plain tile roofs with moulded bargeboards and pendants on the tiled and timber-framed, jettied gables.

The plan comprises principal rooms on the south (right) side around the entrance and stair hall, an axial passage through the service range to the left (north), and an adjoining lodge at the north end.

The house is built in the Old English style. It is two storeys and an attic. The west front is asymmetrical, with projecting gables on the left and right of centre. The left gable has a three-storey canted bay with buttresses to the brick first and second floors, and a wooden top storey. Bays 2 and 3 are flanked by diagonal buttresses; bay 2 has an oriel. Bay 4 is gabled and features a five-light attic window with four central arches and a polygonal stair turret with battlements to the right, alongside a gabled, tile-hung, timber, and brick porch with a panelled inner door featuring radiating balusters to the semi-circular top panel. A single-storey polygonal bay is located on the right-hand corner, next to a later rebuilt conservatory on the rear (south-east) corner. The rear, east garden front has a group of four superimposed tile and timber-frame gables to the right, with the two central gables integral and the outer two projecting, featuring two and three-storey canted wooden bays with decorative timber framing. The windows retain their original design and have moulded mullions and cornices to the transoms; the top lights have glazing bars. A single-storey and attic lodge is attached to the north end and features timber-frame gables.

The interior is largely complete and retains many original features, including panelled doors and joinery. The hall features a woven reed dado and a tall, narrow chimneypiece with Delft tiles, a mirror, and coving. Reed coving continues up the staircase, which has an arcaded ‘clerestory’ and a panelled balustrade; the attic flight has stick balusters. The drawing room has moulded ceiling beams and joists, a chimneypiece with a Tudor arch fireplace, and mirrors and shelves on the overmantel, with coving above. A south-end room has a large chimneypiece with mirrors and a polygonal bay with a central column. A complete set of original chimneypieces is found in the chambers above, alongside simple servants’ stairs and pantry cupboards.

The house was originally known as Herne Close.