St Mary's House

House, later vicarage, now offices; the facade possibly of 1765-70 by John Chute of the Vyne; earlier fabric behind.

MATERIALS: the main facade is of red and grey brick with stone dressings. The rear part is of dark red brick. Hipped roof of plain tiles.

EXTERIOR: to London Road, the house presents a three-storey, double-fronted facade in a Georgian 'Gothick' style. A flight of steps with railings leads up to the central doorway, which has an ogee-headed stone surround with a pineapple finial and tripartite flanking shafts topped by small pinnacles; the door itself has four raised and fielded panels and a Y-tracery fanlight over. A stone string-course runs the width of the facade, breaking upward to form hood-moulds to the ground-floor windows; these are paired Tudor-arched sashes with intersecting glazing bars, set in square stone surrounds. The outer first-floor windows are of the same type, albeit without the string-course; the central window has a single broad sash. The second-floor windows are similar but less tall. Above these is a stone cornice with quatrefoil ornament. A crenellated parapet crowns the facade.

The rear part of the house appears to be of earlier date and consists of two hip-roofed cross-wings with a narrow piece of infill between. The left-hand return wall has two ogee-headed sash windows, presumably contemporary with the facade.

INTERIOR: not inspected.