The Moorings

The Moorings is a house dating from the early 18th century, with alterations from the 19th and early 20th centuries. It is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond on a sandstone plinth with galleting, and includes some tile-hanging to the rear. The roof is tiled, with two tall 19th-century brick chimney stacks and three gabled dormers. The house is two storeys high, with an attic and basement, and has three windows to the front. A plat band runs horizontally, and the eaves project at the gable ends. The front elevation has a regular three-window arrangement of recessed 16-pane sashes, with the central window narrower than the others. Two ground floor sashes show evidence of previous wider window openings. Brickwork indicates that there were originally five windows on the first floor and four on the ground floor, these being altered in two stages to the current configuration. The central front door is an early 20th-century addition, with four vertical panels, approached by three steps, and topped with a flat, bracketed hood, pilasters, and a rectangular fanlight. A curbing stone is present at the northeast corner. The east side has a 12-pane sash to the first floor and a 20th-century window and French window to the ground floor. The rear elevation originally had a catslide roof; a western gable was added in the 1920s and a tile-hung eastern gable in the 1930s. Ground floor windows have cambered heads and include a bricked-in opening. First floor windows are 20th century. A one-storey brick extension was added to the southeast in the 1920s. Inside, a fine early 18th-century dogleg staircase features turned balusters and a square newel post, alongside dado panelling to the side. An early 18th-century two-panelled door to the cellar is now blocked, but access to the cellar is provided by a late 18th-century six-panelled door with the top two panels glazed. Ground floor rooms contain roll-moulded axial beams. The dining room has a renewed bressumer over the open fireplace, but retains a salt alcove and two wooden seats. The first floor has timber framing to partition walls, cupboards with H-hinges, and a two-panelled door. The roof structure has halved and pegged rafters without a ridge piece, with collars housed and pegged to the rafters. The cellar holds two reused beams, some old floor joists, and two cambered headed lantern alcoves. The building was once part of the Cornwallis estate.