Autumn House And Woodlands

Autumn House and Woodlands is a rectory, dating to circa 1838, that has been remodelled in the mid-19th century and is now two private houses. It’s constructed of flint with buff-coloured brick dressings, and has a slate roof with gabled ends; those to the west have ornate bargeboards. Brick axial and gable-end stacks feature grouped polygonal shafts. The building was designed in a Tudor Gothic style.

The plan consists of a two-room front range to the east, known as Autumn House, with a central entrance, and a wing to the west, the western end of which forms a separate house called Woodlands. The south-east front is almost symmetrical with three bays, and the windows and central doorway are arranged to the right. It has sash windows with margin panes; those on the ground floor to the right have arched glazing bars. Chamfered brick openings feature hoodmoulds, and the central entrance has a large canted brick porch with a four-centred arch and deep moulded cornice. The south-west elevation has four bays, with gables to the left and right. The right side has a large stuccoed canted bay window with margin pane sashes and a moulded cornice. The left side has a large stone two-storey canted bay with four-centred arch lights, a smaller gable to the left of centre, and a recess to the right of centre containing a 20th-century conservatory.

Inside Autumn House, the drawing room and dining room are linked by ornate Gothic stone arches with pierced spandrels, either side of a chimney stack that has back-to-back fireplaces, each with a stone chimneypiece and a frieze of shields. The rooms also have moulded plaster ceiling cornices and panelled window shutters.

The building was originally the rectory for St John the Baptist Church, which was built in 1838 to the designs of Jacob or T.E. Owen, and remodelled in 1853.