Cowpers House

Cowper's House, also known as The Lodge, is a house dating from the 17th century that was refronted in the early 18th century. It is built of coursed rubblestone and has an old tile roof. The house has two storeys and an attic, featuring three wide bays. The street front, which is from the early 18th century, includes seven-foot windows. There is a central six-panel door surrounded by an architrave with a plain outer surround, console brackets, a cornice, and a pediment. The windows are three-pane sashes set in early 18th-century box frames, topped with segmented dressed stone heads that have key blocks. The window arrangement follows a rhythm of 2:3:2. The house has a splayed plinth, a moulded string at the first floor, and three hipped dormers with two lights each. There are flanking brick stacks on stone bases and stone-coped gables on kneelers. The two right-hand bays feature 17th-century stone mullioned cellar windows, and on the south-west gable, there is a blocked 17th-century stone mullioned window with a cornice head. The rear elevation has sashes, some of which are blocked, and on the ground floor to the left, there is a reused front window with early 18th-century heavy glazing bars and chamfers. The back door has a patterned fanlight.

Inside, there is an early 18th-century staircase with square newels, a heavy moulded handrail, and delicate turned balusters that end in a wide scroll at the foot. The left-hand room is panelled and features pilasters flanking an 18th-century fireplace, along with panelled shutters and window seats. The right-hand ground floor room has a triglyph frieze cornice and eight-panel doors. This house was the residence of the poet William Cowper from 1786 to 1795.