Liptraps House

Liptraps House is a house, originally a farmhouse, dating to the late 16th century. It was refaced in the 18th century and extended in the first half of the 19th century. The eastern part of the house is timber-framed, with tile-hanging to the first floor and brick underbuilding to the ground floor, which is now painted. The western part is of diaper work brick, with fishscale tiles on the western gable end and rendered sections. The roof is tiled, with a brick chimneystack centrally positioned on the ridge, an external chimneystack to the east, and a rear stack. The building is two storeys high with an irregular arrangement of windows. The original plan was a three-bay lobby entrance house, which was extended by one bay with a parlour to the front and further service rooms to the rear in the 19th century.

The south or entrance front has a half-hipped roof to the east and two hipped dormers with casement windows. The lower floors have two four-light casement windows and a doorcase with a half-glazed door. The western part features a projecting, two-storey gabled porch with ornamental bargeboards and three-light casement windows with ornamental glazing bars on each floor. A cambered entrance is located on the west side, with two further casements. The west elevation has a three-light casement to the first floor and a five-light bay with glazing bars to the upper part only. The east elevation has an external stack and a bricked-up round-headed arch. The north or rear elevation features two casement windows to the west and a 19th-century square brick glazed-in porch with a half-glazed door and panels below. The western part includes a large gable with casement windows and a half-glazed door facing east.

Internally, much of the original 16th-century timber frame is visible, including spine beams to the ground floor (one of which is boxed-in), the wall frame to the first floor with jowled corner posts, and a queenpost roof. An original partition wall remains. Some original rafters are exposed, along with a wattle and daub panel to the original west wall, with the remainder likely surviving behind later plasterboard. Grooves in the first-floor carpet suggest the presence of wide floorboards, possibly dating to the late 16th century. A half-winder staircase leads from the first floor to the attic and is probably from the 18th century. The original large open fireplace survives in the penultimate eastern ground floor room, although it now features a 19th-century oak bressumer, built-in settles and brickwork. A 19th-century staircase with turned balusters, a patterned tiled hall floor, several 19th-century fireplaces with cast iron firegrates (one with decorative tiles), and 19th-century panelling to the upstairs corridor are also present.

Historically, the site was part of a monastic manor belonging to the Knights Templars. An Ordnance Survey map from 1868 showed the outline of the monastic enclosure surrounding the house and farm buildings.