The Bower

THE BOWER

House, formerly a farmhouse, dating from circa early 18th century (reputedly 1710) and remodelled and extended in circa late 19th or early 20th century.

The building is constructed of brick laid in stretcher bond, with the right-hand side of the front and left-hand side featuring tile-hanging on the first floor and weatherboarding on the ground floor. The rear wing is of brick, with the left-hand side weatherboarded. The roof is of plain tiles with a half-hipped profile; the rear wing is gable-ended. There are projecting gable-end stacks.

The original early 18th-century house comprises the main front range and possibly the rear right-hand outshut, laid out with a 2-room plan of equal-sized rooms. The left-hand room served as the parlour and the right-hand as the original kitchen, with a relatively wide entrance hall between them containing a dog-leg staircase. An unheated outshut behind the right-hand room may be integral to the original plan or a later extension; the stretcher bond brickwork on the right-hand side possibly conceals a joint in the brickwork. In the late 19th or early 20th century the house was substantially remodelled and extended. A 2-storey kitchen wing with its own unheated outshut was added behind the left-hand room. Other alterations of this period include the front porch and bay window to its left, and possibly a complete refenestration. Much of the internal joinery, including the staircase, was replaced, and a cloakroom may have been added in the space between the rear wing and outshut. The external weatherboarding, tile-hanging and conservatory on the right-hand side may also date from this period.

The exterior presents two storeys and attic, with a south-west front of three windows arranged symmetrically except for a large ground-floor bay window to the left. The bay window dates from circa late 19th or early 20th century and features mullion-transom casements and a cornice; the other first-floor casements (3-light and central 2-light) were not examined and may be earlier. A central doorway carries a late 19th or early 20th-century half-glazed door and porch with slender columns supporting a canopy and entablature. A single central hipped dormer with wrought-iron finial and casement rises from the roof.

The right-hand side features a large external stack with a tiled set-off, enclosed at the base within a large conservatory of circa early 20th-century date. The left-hand side has an external stack, with weatherboarding on the ground floor of the front range continuing over the whole of that side of the rear wing and its outshut. At the rear, the roof continues down at the left over the outshut, above which are two hipped dormers; to the right, the later wing projects and has a projecting stack and a single-storey lean-to outshut on its gable end.

Interior features include, in the right-hand ground-floor room, a cross-beam with thin chamfers and cyma stops and a large brick fireplace with a similar lintel. The first-floor rooms in the front range have chamfered cross-beams with run-out stops. Doorways in the front range retain original door frames; only those on the first floor retain their 18th-century 2-panel doors, whilst ground-floor rooms have late 19th or 20th-century replacements. The staircase is late 19th or early 20th-century, with turned newels and balusters. The rear right-hand room in the outshut has roughly chamfered beams. The roof over the front range, partly visible, appears to be the original early 18th-century common-rafter oak structure.