The Pantiles

House, built in 1909 by Cecil H Lay. The building is constructed of flint cobbles, red brick, tiles, and some stone quoins. It has pantile hipped roofs with lean-tos attached. Prominent lateral stacks have tall brick shafts, and some are topped with brick arch cowls. The plan is square, featuring a verandah on the south-east front, an entrance on the south-west side, and a lean-to outshut and outhouses around a small service yard to the rear north-west. The architectural style is Domestic Revival.

The exterior is two storeys and an attic. The north-east side has three ground-floor windows; the right-hand window is a two-light casement within the outshut, and the central and left-hand windows are three-light casements with decorative zigzag brickwork in semi-circular tympana. Above these are one-light casements, with a brick panel between them beneath a chimney stack. The north-west rear elevation shows the main roof extended over the outshut on the left, incorporating a small, single-storey outbuilding with an integral porch on a round corner pier, leading to the small rear service yard. A canted bay is present on the right, also with zigzag brickwork in its tympanum. Rising from the main roof is a squat tower constructed in a rat-trap brick bond, topped with a pyramidal roof featuring a wrought-iron weathervane, a circular window, and integral stacks. The south-west entrance side has a lateral stack at centre, with a pantile set-off at its base, a wrought-iron snake-shaped tie end, an integral porch on the left, and a window on the right, with a tile tympanum featuring a tall, thin keystone and tilted brick verges tumbling into a lean-to on the right. The roof of the tower is continued down the south-east garden front through two storeys and the attic, to a verandah (now glazed) on the ground floor and an outshut on the left. First floor and attic windows are recessed in the roof, with the attic having a doorway and side-lights to a balcony. All the windows are casements with glazing bars.

The interior retains many original features, including an open-well staircase with stick balusters and a carved owl finial to the newel post. A pointed arch brick niche is found in the hall, and the fireplace displays a tile arch with shell spandrels formed from oyster petals, and a shelf supported on fretwork brackets shaped like birds. Geometric pattern inscribed plasterwork is also present, alongside diagonally boarded doors with ornate wrought-iron hinges. SOURCE: Architectural Review January 1923.