Swatlands

Swatlands is a house dating from around the mid 17th century, with alterations and extensions made around 1800. The original structure was framed construction, but the front and return walls have been completely rebuilt and are now rendered with chamfered rustication on the ground floor. The front block has a slate roof, while the rear block features peg tiles, and both have stacks with rendered shafts and flared chimneypots.

The house faces south and has a double-depth plan that is three rooms wide. The front block follows a 17th-century three-room lobby entrance plan, with the lower end located to the right (east). Around 1800, a separately-roofed rear service block was added along the same axis, and the exterior was refronted and updated. The lower end room received a garden entrance on the right return and was eventually used as a farm office.

The exterior is two storeys high and features an asymmetrical three-window front with a parapet, and the slate roof is half-hipped at the ends. There is a circa 1800 panelled front door leading to the lobby entrance, located to the right of centre. Most windows are 20th-century casements, but they remain in original embrasures. An early to mid 19th-century verandah supported by cast iron columns has a corrugated plastic and glazed roof, along with remnants of a timber canopy. The right return has ball finials on the parapets of each block and three early 19th-century sash windows with floating cornices on brackets. A 20th-century door leads into the lower end room, situated below a floating cornice on brackets. The rear elevation retains two small pane first floor sashes from around 1800 and two later 19th-century sashes on the first floor, along with a large 20th-century conservatory added at the rear.

Inside, there is a good survival of 17th-century carpentry. The two right-hand ground floor rooms feature chamfered stopped crossbeams and joists. The hall fireplace has a damaged oak lintel, while the fireplace in the lower end room is blocked. Part of the framing of the rear wall of the 17th-century block remains, including a complete wall post. There is a first floor archway dating from around 1800.

The roof is constructed with clasped purlins and shows evidence of additional curved queen struts to one cross wall.