Ockham House

Ockham House is a house dated 1913, built for and possibly designed by Mr Boyle, with additions and alterations made during the 1920s and 1930s.

The building is designed in Elizabethan style. The north range is constructed of red brick in English bond with ashlar dressings, while the south range uses brick, tile-hanging, timber frame with brick infill and plastered infill to the gables. Both ranges have plain tile roofs.

The north (entrance) elevation presents 2 storeys over a basement. It comprises 10 bays, with end bays projecting as gabled wings and bay 2 projecting at an angle. A single-storey porch occupies the centre. A dentilled ground-floor cornice, first-floor string and parapet run across the elevation. The porch features a 4-centred-arched opening and inner doorway, each with quoined surround and sunk spandrels. Octagonal corner turrets flank the porch, and a curvilinear gable with a raised shield rises above it. Windows throughout have quoined surrounds and chamfered mullions, with 4-centred arched lights on the ground and first floors and leaded glazing. Most windows have 3 lights and are transomed to bay 4 and on the ground floor of bays 3, 6 and 8; others have 2 lights above the porch, to bay 6, bay 7 on the first floor, and bay 9 on the ground floor. Basement windows light bays 2, 4, 7, 8 and 10. A 2-span roof covers the range with broad stacks to the gable of the left wing and the right side of the right wing. Set-back wings project to left and right.

The garden (south) elevation displays 2 storeys with an attic and comprises 6 main bays. Bay 4 features a 2-storey porch open on the ground floor with timber posts and a part-glazed small-pane inner door; the first floor has a sundial and a 3-light window with sill and lintel bands beneath an ogee roof with finial. To the right of the porch is a 4-light window on each floor, that on the ground floor set within a flat-roofed projection. To the left are paired 4-light double-transomed bay windows under gablets, each with a single-light window to the outer side. Bays 1 and 6 project under gables: bay 1 has a 6-light window to the ground floor and a 4-light window above, while bay 6 has a 2-storey canted bay window with 1:3:1 lights to each floor. The gables feature large boards and pendant finials. The roof over the south range, lower than that over the north range, has three 4-light flat-roofed dormers and 2 stacks in the front roof pitch; the stack above the porch has multiple flues and is archaic in character.

The interior contains good contemporary interiors. The stair features moulded balusters and newels to the lower section with a pierced ashlar balustrade; the upper section has moulded splat balusters. The Dining Room is panelled and contains a 4-centred-arched stone fireplace with the fireback dated 1913. The Minstrels Gallery opens off the Dining Room; the first-floor Garden Room beyond it has linefold-panelled dado with brattished top, William Morris-style wallpaper and an elaborate coffered ceiling with moulded plasterwork. A second Dining Room in 18th-century style features a panelled dado, wall panels with decorative columns between, an elaborate fireplace architrave with fluted columns and broken pediment, and a panelled ceiling. The Study and Drawing Room have 1930s fireplaces and bookshelves, those in the Drawing Room fitted with fake books. Various good fireplaces and contemporary sanitary fittings occupy the upper floors. The most notable room is the "Italian Bedroom", decorated in Hollywood style with columns, a decorative fireplace and door architraves, moulded cornice and bed tester.