The Hermitage

The Hermitage is a house dating to the late 18th century, with alterations made in the 19th century. It is constructed of red brick in a Flemish bond pattern, with limestone ashlar bands in the main block and decorative burnt headers in the kitchen wing. The brick stacks and chimneyshafts feature some 19th-century chimneypots, and the roof is covered with peg tiles.

The house is set back from the road, facing north-northwest. The plan is of a double depth, with a large central entrance hall and main staircase leading to front and back rooms on either side. Principal rooms are located on the left side, overlooking the garden to the east. These include a large front room which was given a mid-19th century canted bay. Service rooms are positioned on the right side, with a lower kitchen block projecting to the rear, which was rebuilt in the 19th century. The kitchen block includes a two-room plan, an axial stack, a service entrance, and a service stair.

The house is two storeys high. The symmetrical front facade has three windows, with all openings featuring rubbed brick flat arches and 12-pane sashes, the outer ones being tripartite. The central doorway is approached by semi-circular steps, leading to a six-panel door with a radial-glazed overlight and a timber doorcase incorporating plain pilasters and a moulded entablature with a dentil frieze. Limestone bands project at first floor level, at the eaves, and from the coping of the plain parapet. The roof has four parallel sections running front to back, with hipped ends. The right (service) side of the house features a two-window front, matching the style of the main facade, with a four-panel door, two 16-pane sashes with segmental brick arches, and two 8-pane sashes above. The garden front presents a two-bay, three-window arrangement of large 12-pane sashes. The right-hand three-window section is the 19th-century bay, designed to blend with the rest of the house, although its parapet has a moulded cornice. A tall 18-pane (12/6) sash window illuminates the stairwell at the rear.

The interior retains 18th and 19th century joinery details, including a geometric open-string staircase with a mahogany handrail and stick balusters.