Vernon Cottage

Vernon Cottage is a house and former tea rooms built in 1817 for Edward Vernon Utterson. It was constructed in the Cottage Ornée style, possibly influenced by the designs of John Plaw. A left-hand gable was added in the mid-19th century, and the building has undergone 20th-century alterations, including a rear extension. The construction is of stone rubble with applied wooden framing and carving, and a thatched roof with a brick chimney stack.

The building has an irregular shape and comprises one storey and attics, with three windows facing the main elevation. The south-east elevation features a ground floor of stone rubble and a stuccoed attic with applied framing. The left-hand gable is blank, with fretted bargeboards and a lancet window featuring human mask corbels to the dripmould. A central hipped dormer boasts a carved bressumer to the eaves and a restored large casement with leaded lights. To the right is a projecting half-hipped gable with elaborate moulding and bargeboards, containing a triple casement on the first floor and a five-light renewed bay on the ground floor. A slightly projecting doorcase to the right-hand side has a gable with bargeboards and a two-centre arched doorcase.

The south-west elevation displays a projecting first-floor gable with fretted bargeboards on wooden brackets, supporting an oriel window also on moulded brackets. A diagonally set stone chimney features three octagonal brick flues. Attached to the north is a mid-19th century projecting extension with stone on the ground floor and fishscale slates above, and fretted bargeboards. This extension contains one four-light oriel window and one casement. A mid-20th century shop extension at the rear is not considered to be of special interest.

The entrance hall features hexagonal decorative floor tiles and an ogee arch to the staircase. The staircase has scrolled tread ends and two turned balusters to each tread. The front left ground-floor room contains a probably Flemish fireplace, dated Anno 1693, with a frieze of lions and cherubs and mermen with entwined tails, supported on two caryatids with Ionic capitals. A cast iron fire surround from around 1820 has been added. A carved wooden panel on the ceiling displays a strapwork motif, and the cornice has roses and a modified mutule frieze. Six-panelled doors have C17-style round-headed arches on the back. The ground-floor right-side room has a fireplace with carvings of the Four Seasons, likely reused C17 Flemish carvings inserted in a reeded surround with lion mask paterae. A square panel is present on the ceiling. One door has a very fine moulded architrave and Perpendicular-style carved details.