Rownhams House

Rownhams House is a country house, built circa 1760-1765 for Robert Barton, with later extensions and alterations in the late 19th century, the early 20th century, and 1926. The house is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond, with some blue brick headers, and has a concealed roof behind a parapet. Brick axial stacks are present.

The house has a large, almost square, rectangular plan, facing west, and was extended in the early 20th century on the east side with a single-storey addition, to which a second storey was added in 1926. Service wings on the north side are likely 19th-century additions.

The west front has two storeys and a 2:1:1 bay arrangement. Brick giant pilasters rise to the parapet. The centre and ground floor bay to the left appear to be early 20th-century alterations, including a central doorway with an arched canopy, a fanlight, flanking sidelights, and a Venetian window above. Twelve-pane sashes are present to the right and left, with the glazing bars missing on the ground floor right and larger 15-pane sashes in the ground floor bay to the left. All windows have gauged brick flat arches, as do the blind panels above the first-floor windows.

The south garden front is similar, with blind panels and giant pilasters, and has a 4:2 bay arrangement. The right-hand two bays are an early 20th-century single-storey and attic addition, heightened in 1926 and featuring a Venetian window.

The east elevation includes an extension projecting on the left, featuring a Venetian ground floor window and four bays to the right, partly three storeys high, with various sashes with glazing bars. A lower wing on the right was refaced in the early 20th century with a wall matching the stables.

Interior elements include surviving 18th-century joinery. The staircase is an early 20th-century reconstruction of an 18th-century design, featuring turned balusters, handrails, and column newels. The drawing room and library have modillion cornices, later friezes, plaster wall panels, moulded doorcases with overdoors, veneered panelled doors, and inlaid borders that continue around the floor through a later partition. The library contains a fine set of Edwardian glazed bookcases and Corinthian columns to the chimney-piece. The former kitchen retains a large cast-iron range.