The Hermitage

The Hermitage is a substantial house dating from the mid-17th century, which was re-fronted in the early 18th century and extended in the late 18th or early 19th century. It is constructed of limestone ashlar, and marlstone ashlar with limestone ashlar dressings, and has Welsh slate and plain tile roofs, with ashlar gable stacks. The building has a double-depth plan with a rear wing. The symmetrical front has two storeys plus an attic, and features a regular four-window arrangement. The limestone front has a chamfered plinth and a heavy wooden modillion cornice. It contains 12-pane sashes in moulded stone architraves; the entrance in the first bay has a similar architrave and a wide recessed 6-panel door with an ornamental overlight. There are two moulded early 18th-century lead rainwater heads. The attic has three renewed roof dormers. The steep-pitched double-span roof has 17th-century gable parapets with triangular copings and moulded projecting kneelers; the double stacks have moulded caps and plinths. The marlstone gables retain leaded 2-light ovolo-moulded stone-mullioned windows with labels, and the wing returning to the left has a similar 3-light transomed window. A slate-roofed marlstone-ashlar range, infilling the angle, is probably late 18th or early 19th century and has further sashes with stone flat arches. The interior is noted to contain a 17th-century oak dogleg stair with turned balusters.