Palace House

Palace House is a house dating from around 1700, with additions and renovations from the 18th and mid-19th centuries. The original part is constructed with brick in English bond, while later sections use Flemish and Flemish Garden Wall bond. Some parts of the older section incorporate ashlar and rubble stonework, with a first-floor band embellishing the brickwork. The roof is tiled, with hip and gable sections to the service wing.

The house consists of an earlier block, a later block (around 1800) added to the north, a two-story outshot (mid-19th century) projecting eastward with a basement, and a small, single-story service wing attached to the southeast corner. The north facade has a symmetrical arrangement of two storeys and four windows, featuring sash windows in reveals and a half-glazed door. The south elevation is less regular, with three windows, coved plaster eaves, gabled dormers, sash windows (including a round-headed staircase window), basement casements, and a plain doorway with a simple pediment on wooden cheeks. The west elevation features smaller windows and a Tuscan porch with two pilasters and two plain columns, framing a six-panelled door.

Inside, two rooms are panelled with 18th-century pine panelling, which were salvaged from a local house and re-used. The staircase, dating from around 1800, begins in the older part of the house and extends to the first-floor level, with shorter staircases descending from the landing to the rooms on the south side. The rear of the house is on a lower natural ground level, suggesting the present front ground level is raised. Several watercourses run beneath the building. The presence of stonework in the lower walls of the original section and the house's proximity to the remains of the Bishops’ Palace suggests the possibility of a medieval origin.