No. 11 The Goffs

No. 11 The Goffs is a detached house built in 1910 and designed by local architect Peter Dulvey Stonham in the Arts and Crafts style for F H Stapley, a local solicitor. It has been refurbished and converted into flats after 1964. A contemporary garage and boundary walls form part of the property. A late 20th-century flat-roofed extension to the south-west and a late 20th-century porch to the former service entrance are not of special interest.

The house is built of brown brick in stretcher bond with tile-on-edge quoins and occasional stone details. The gables are timber-framed with plaster infill. Lead cladding with diamond panels appears between the floors of the two-storey canted bays on the rear elevation, with one panel including the date 1910. The steeply pitched tiled roof features tall moulded brick chimneystacks with blank round-headed arches. Throughout the building, windows are original wooden casements with leaded lights and ornamental metal catches, except for one attic uPVC replacement. Some windows have been repaired with false leads stuck over the glass and some metal latches have been replaced. The oak panelled front door has five panels with original ornamental hinges, letter box and handle.

The house is asymmetrical, of two storeys with attics, with five bays to the entrance front and three to the garden front. The service end originally occupied the western end and terminates in a projecting garage.

The north-east or entrance front has five bays. The eastern bay contains a three-light casement on the ground floor. The penultimate bay to the east projects with a timber-framed gable with plain barge boards, a four-light canted bay to the first floor, and a hipped roof entrance porch with wooden piers over a brick and stone plinth. The central bay has a four-light dormer, a three-light first-floor window and a three-light mullioned and transomed casement to the ground floor. The penultimate bay to the west projects with a large timber-framed gable supported on wooden brackets, a four-light canted bay to the first floor and a four-light mullioned and transomed casement below. The western bay, part of the original service end, has a catslide roof to the ground floor with a triple dormer and a service door now behind a later 20th-century glazed porch.

Connected by a wall and projecting further east is a single-storey garage in brown brick with tile-on-edge quoins, a hipped tiled roof, wooden double doors with top-lights and a three-light casement window in the side elevation.

The east side features S-shaped iron eaves brackets, a dated cast iron rainwater head, three small first-floor windows, a canted bay window to the ground floor at the north and a curved bay window to the south.

The south-west or garden front has three bays with unequally-sized projecting end bays. The central bay has a three-light attic window, a modified Venetian type staircase window to the first floor and a combined two-light window with stained glass rose decoration below with a rear door under a flat hood and another single-light window adjoining. On each side of the door are two original curved wooden benches with heart-shaped cutouts. The smaller eastern bay has a projecting timber-framed gable and a two-storey six-light bay with ornamented lead cladding between the storeys featuring diamond panels, one including the date 1910. The western bay has similar features and date but wider gable and canted bay windows.

The north-west side has a projecting chimneystacks pierced by a hipped ground-floor projection. There is a four-light dormer, S-shaped iron brackets to the eaves and mainly small first and ground-floor windows. A flat-roofed late 20th-century single-storey extension with sliding patio doors has been added at the south-west end.

Internally, the front entrance leads into a vestibule with patterned tessellated floor and a glazed and wooden screen. The upper part of the screen has stained glass rose and foliate emblems, while the lower part is panelled with a central pedimented doorcase. This opens into the staircase-hall with almost full-height panelling, a moulded plate-shelf and slender ceiling beams. At the south end is a stained glass window with rose motifs, and there are stained glass rose motifs to the rear door. The oak dogleg staircase has alternately two or three diagonally-placed stick balusters with octagonal moulded newel posts and some pendants. The attic window has foliate patterned stained glass. A former inner hall to the east on the ground floor leads into the former drawing room which retains original doors, panelled walls and moulded cornices but no fireplaces. The western dining room overlooking the garden could not be accessed. The remaining ground-floor rooms to the north were originally service rooms. The first-floor landing retains a round-headed arch and half-glazed door. The former first-floor north-east flat bedroom retains the original cornice, while the two former north-western bedrooms retain no original features. The two south-western bedrooms could not be accessed. The attic, unusually designed to include a billiard room, retains no original features. A number of original doors survive throughout the house. Some rooms have received later partitions. The garage is reported to have received some internal alterations for mobility reasons.

The original property boundary wall survives. At the front on the north-west side this is approximately six feet high incorporating cobbles with a brick elliptical-arched pedestrian entrance at the west end with brick piers and pyramidal stone caps. At the east end are similar brick piers to a vehicular entrance, although the easternmost pier has been renewed.