Montfort House

Montfort House

A tower house dating from around 1860, extended in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The building is constructed in brown stock brick laid in English bond, with slate roofs and some machine tiles.

The main structure is a four-stage tower of irregular hexagonal plan. The north elevation features a central stack rising the full height to a chimney flue. Identical canted side bays have one 2-light casement to each of the lower three storeys beneath segmental heads, and one 3-light mullioned stone window to the fourth storey. Painted brick banding appears at the lintel of the ground-floor windows and under the sills of the fourth-storey windows. A cornice sits above the second storey, and the parapet is crenellated. The east elevation has a full-height stock-brick extension from the 1950s. The south elevation displays an oriel casement window to the first floor, a 2-light window to the third floor, and a 3-light stone mullioned window to the top floor. The parapet steps to allow a 4-light stone mullioned window to the fifth floor. A stack stands to the west.

A late 19th century single-storey apsed room was added to the south, fitted with one- and 2-light casements and functioning as a chapel. A 2-storey apsed extension to the west features uPVC windows to the first floor, with the ground floor obscured by an early 20th century conservatory. This conservatory has a cruciform plan with weatherboarding on a brick plinth below a frieze of round-headed glazed lights, and double doors with side glazing to the south.

Further early 20th century additions extend to the west, comprising a 2-storey canted range with timber casements and a timber verandah to the ground floor, followed by a 2-storey extension and then a red-brick 2-storey courtyard fronted to the south by a timber loggia under a pitched machine-tiled roof. The north elevation of these early 20th century extensions consists of a 3-storey single-window range with a tile-hung top storey, twin casements to the lower two storeys, and a 4-light casement to the top floor, all beneath a tall hipped machine-tiled roof. The entrance is in a bowed 2-storey single-window range to the west, with an arched entrance and a square-headed light above, beneath a tall gabled roof. Further extensions to the west include a dining room with triple casements to the ground and first floors and a stepped gable end, a 2-storey single-window range projecting west, and additional courtyard buildings beyond.

The interior contains an entrance hall with panelled walls and a brick fireplace with a semi-circular arch in the east wall, spanned by heavy plain cruciform bridging beams. A closed string staircase to the south has panelled newel posts with caps and a panelled side wall. The former chapel retains plastered bridging beams and an apsed sanctuary end with one- and 2-light leaded windows containing stained glass panels. A segmental arch before the apse is supported on two unfluted columns. The dining room to the west of the tower features small-framed panelling, cruciform bridging beams, and a chimneypiece with Composite fluted columns supporting a foliage-carved frieze below an overmantel with a mirror framed by fluted Corinthian columns. An adjoining room to the west contains a wide segmental arch with a panelled soffit defining a recess containing an eared timber chimneypiece with glazed bookcases in the overmantel. The library in the base of the tower has panelled walls, bookcases, and a 4-centred stone fireplace. The main first-floor bedroom to the south in the early 20th century extension displays large-framed panelling and 4-panelled doors with broken pediments, along with an original bathroom suite comprising sink and bath. A panelled first-floor staircase landing completes the interior features.