Clare Station and platform shelter

Clare Station and Platform Shelter

This is a grade II listed station building with an attached platform waiting shelter, built from red brick laid in Flemish bond with gault brick dressings and slate-covered roofs.

The station building has an H-shaped plan. The two-storey station master's house forms the eastern range, the booking hall forms the central range, and a single-storey western range completes the composition. Outbuildings are located in the former garden on the east side of the house and are attached via a brick wall to the north-east corner. A platform waiting shelter with attached platform walls stands opposite on the south side.

The station master's house features hipped roofs with prominent rusticated quoins, string courses, and eaves courses. Its east-facing façade comprises three bays. The outer ground-floor bays contain tall two-over-two pane sash windows with arched upper sashes, set in segmental-arched architraves of gault brick with raised keystones. Stone sills are supported by small corbels at each end. An off-centre four-panelled front door with moulded upper panels and an over-light sits in a similar architrave; a small 20th-century window has been inserted to its left. Ground-floor aperture lintels are linked by a string course, with a matching first-floor string course above. The first floor is lit by three similar but shorter windows with lintels incorporated into the eaves course. Single windows light the one-bay north and east sides on each floor. Two brick chimney stacks with oversailing courses rise from the lower end of the west pitch.

The outbuildings to the east form a single-storey range under a pitched roof, attached to the house by a tall brick wall with a plank-and-batten door. They contain one window and two doors under gauled brick heads, which were boarded up at inspection in 2013. A 20th-century shed has been added to the east but is not included in the listing.

The central range is set back on the north front and comprises a window and a double-leaf two-panelled door with moulded lower panels, set in an architrave with a segmental-arched over-light and flanking one-over-one pane margin lights. A lean-to canopy with ornate timber brackets and a ridge stack is attached to the right side. The south elevation features centrally placed double-leaf glazed doors flanked by a brick plinth with glazed areas above, all added in the 20th century. The west range is lit by windows on one-bay north and south sides. The west elevation has a panelled door and window on the left, with repaired brickwork on the right where lavatory facilities were formerly located.

The platform waiting shelter matches the station building in style and materials. It is single-storey with a hipped roof and two chimney stacks, one with oversailing courses. The north elevation, facing the platform, has a centrally placed 20th-century door with the original timber arch above, flanked on either side by rebuilt brick plinths supporting 20th-century replica window screens with timber glazing bars. Single large windows in gault brick architraves light the end bays. A door provides access from the west side. Attached to each side is a brick platform wall featuring recessed panels with dentilled upper edges, capped with engineering brick.

The station master's house interior contains two ground-floor rooms either side of a wide entrance hall and three first-floor bedrooms. Joinery survives with considerable intactness, including four-panelled doors moulded on the outer side, moulded door frames, skirting boards, a picture rail in the former parlour, and some moulded cornices on the first floor. Fireplaces have been removed. The original staircase that ascended from the rear of the entrance hall has been removed, replaced by a 20th-century straight flight in the north-east corner of the ticket hall. A mezzanine has been built along the east side of the ticket hall to provide a bathroom; these additions are not included in the listing. The entrance doors to the hall on north and south sides have heavily moulded timber frames. A 19th-century fireplace with plain timber surround, now bricked up, stands in the ticket hall. The former waiting room in the west section retains only the 19th-century door and window, with an inserted ceiling.

The platform waiting shelter was not available for internal inspection but is reported to retain a fitted bench and fireplace.