Virtue'S Farmhouse And Front Garden Wall

Virtue's Farmhouse and Front Garden Wall

This is a farmhouse of early 18th-century date with 19th-century additions, built in red Flemish bond brick with a plain tile roof. The building is two storeys with an attic storey and follows a T-shaped plan.

The entrance front features a projecting wing to the left of centre, added in the early 19th century when the facade appears to have been reordered. To the right of this wing are three bays. The central bay contains an early 19th-century panelled door surround with recessed panels to the outer faces, raised roundels to their centres and to the frieze, and a band of flutings around the architrave. The door itself is of six panels, with the lower four raised and fielded and the upper two glazed with raised and fielded panels to the reveals. To the right of the door is a sash window of 4 x 4 panes with a flat-arched head, and to the left is a 3-light casement window with a flat-arched head. A band of 3 bricks depth runs between the floors. To the first floor at left and right are renewed 20th-century casement windows, each of 3 lights. A modillion cornice in brick appears below the eaves, with a 2-light renewed dormer window to the attic.

The projecting wing has a blank gabled end with a chimney stack and is of less height than the earlier portion, but continues the brick band that divides the ground and first floors. The right-hand flank of the wing has a doorway similar to that in the earlier block but without the fluted band to the architrave. To the left of this at ground floor level is a renewed 3-light 20th-century casement window with a flat-arched head, and two renewed 3-light casement windows are positioned to the first floor. The left-hand flank has a 20th-century door surround at the left and a blocked window at the right, with a 2-light casement window to the first floor right. To the left of the wing, the 18th-century body has a 3-light renewed casement window at ground floor level and a similar window above at first floor level. The 18th-century portion has a gable chimney stack at the left and a ridge stack to the right of centre.

The right-hand gable end has a 20th-century ground floor rectangular extension with a flat roof. To the first floor above this is a 3-light casement window with a flat-arched head and a 2-light casement with a cambered head to the attic. Three tie rods project from the gable, their plates taking the form of initials R above MV. The left-hand gable end has a catslide roof falling to cover a later outshut with 19th-century fenestration comprising 2-light cambered-headed casements. The rear is obscured at the right by 19th-century service additions. To the left of centre is a projecting staircase bay with a hipped roof and a 3-light casement to first floor level.

Adjoining the early 19th-century wing on the entrance front is an L-shaped screen wall and railings. The walling is of Flemish bond brick with ashlar coping and is set with wrought iron railings. The side wall is divided into three unequal bays by pilaster buttresses. The bay nearest the house encloses a round-headed arch containing a decorative gate of 20th-century wrought iron. The front wall has four square piers at either end and to either side of the gateway, which is positioned on line with the front door of the 18th-century block. The walls are approximately 3 feet 6 inches in height and the piers approximately 9 feet. Large ramps rise from the lower walls to the piers, creating a near-semicircular form at the left. The areas between the ramps, which have ashlar coping, are filled by a screen of rectangular iron palings with spike heads and a plain top-rail. Flat ashlar caps sit on the piers.