Lees Court

Lees Court is a house with origins dating to the late 17th century, significantly remodelled and extended in the early 18th century, with later additions and alterations in the 1960s. The house displays a T-plan, facing east. The original 17th-century section is framed timber construction, clad in weatherboarding designed to imitate rusticated stone. The early 18th-century block is white-painted brick to the ground floor, with framed and plastered first floor. Both sections have peg-tile roofs and brick stacks.

The early 18th-century entrance block is arranged around a north-south axis, containing a large entrance hall with a staircase to the left (south) and a principal room to the north, heated by a stack at the north end. A south crosswing, of 17th-century origins but recast in the early 18th century, now accommodates two rooms and has a stack at the junction with the entrance block. Rear extensions have been added to the entrance block.

The east front has an asymmetrical 1:3 window arrangement, with a half-hipped roof over the crosswing. A projecting early 18th-century porch, featuring Doric columns and pilasters, is located to the left of centre, with a deep horizontal hood and mutules. A probably 20th-century front door with fielded panels is set within the porch. The windows are mostly sash, with various pane arrangements, including a 3 over 6-pane sash to the left of the porch and a tripartite 18th-century sash with 16 panes in the centre and 4 panes to each outer light. The crosswing’s left end features a two-storey canted bay with sash windows, including an attic window with four over eight panes. The south return (the 17th-century crosswing) has five bays. A probably 20th-century French window sits centrally, sheltered by a flat porch hood on brackets. Four ground floor windows have six over nine panes, while five first floor windows have twelve panes. The rear (west) elevation of the crosswing has a 20th-century French window leading to a small balcony with Chinese Chippendale-style balustrade. The rear additions feature timber casement windows.

The interior of the 17th-century wing has been re-partitioned, but retains one chamfered scroll-stopped ceiling beam. A high-quality, probably 19th-century, white marble chimney-piece is in the east room, and a similar chimney-piece is in the main room of the entrance block. The staircase is said to be late 20th-century, designed in an 18th-century style and incorporating barleysugar balusters, an open string, and a ramped handrail.