The Red House

The Red House

House dated 1592, built for the Stebbings family. Timber framed with colourwashed render and plain tiled roof, probably originally thatched. The building has an L-shaped plan with two storeys and an attic, arranged as a 3-cell baffle-entry with a later cross-wing added in the 17th century.

The entrance front features a projecting wing to the far right (added in the later 17th century) which has a half-glazed door to the ground floor at the right and a 3-light window to the left. Above are a 2-light first floor window and a cross-window to the attic. The left hand flank of this wing contains a 2-light ground floor window and a cross-window to the first floor. To the left of the wing is the main axial range, which is recessed. This section originally had a blocked doorway at left of centre below the stack, now replaced by a single-light window but retaining a later 18th or early 19th century pediment with Greek key motif. To the right at ground floor level is one 2-light 19th century casement and to the first floor is a single-light casement at far left and a 2-light 19th century casement to far right. Above the stack are ovolo-moulded windows of 3 lights, 5 lights to the left and 7 lights to the right, with a further 5-light window to far right. A massive axial chimney stack rises to the ridge at left of centre with a brick base containing a datestone inscribed with the initials G.S. The stack has sawtoothed flues with ball ornament, covered in cement render and lacking their caps. A further axial stack stands at the junction of the axial range and the wing.

The left hand gable end is blank but features a jettied gable with a moulded bressumer. The right hand side has an outshut at ground floor level to the left and a 3-light ground floor window to the right, with a 3-light first floor window also to the right. The rear has a projecting wing to the left containing 2-light ground and first floor windows. The axial range to the right includes 20th century fenestration with a gabled ground floor porch to the left of centre containing a plank door, flanked by a 2-light casement to the left and a 3-light, a 5-light, and three 3-light casements to the right. Directly below the stack is one 3-light 17th century ovolo-moulded window to the upper wall.

Interior: The present drawing room has chamfered wall posts with decoratively carved jowls supporting ovolo-moulded beams with stepped lamb's tongue end stops and quirks to the edges of these ovolo mouldings, with a central convex moulding to the underside of the beams. The wall plates have similar mouldings. The present hall features close-studded walling and a fireplace with canted inner corners and chamfered ashlar quoins to the arch, with a chamfered bressumer and die-out end stops. A similar fireplace with lamb's tongue end stops occurs in the drawing room. A winder staircase leads up from the lobby of the baffle-entry plan. One first floor room has a 17th century ceiling divided into four equal compartments by ceiling beams, with richly moulded plaster panels carrying either a central diamond or roundel with quadrants, or diagonally-cut rectangles to the corners. The corner compartments display winged cherubs' heads, with other motifs including roses, lilies and fleurs de lys. Other first floor rooms retain jowled wall posts and close studding.