The Hermitage

The Hermitage is a house that has been converted into an office, dwelling, and three flats. It dates from the early 16th century, with alterations made in the late 17th century. The building is constructed of coursed limestone rubble and features a gabled stone slate roof. The right end stack is made of stone, while the left is finished in 20th-century brick. The front and rear lateral stacks are made of stone and finished in 18th-century brick.

The layout consists of a three-unit through-passage plan with a rear right wing. It stands two storeys tall with an attic and has a symmetrical five-window range. There are mid-19th-century Gothic doorways to the left and centre, each with cornices over pointed chamfered arches, although the centre doorway is blocked. The right doorway features a four-centred arch with foliate spandrels and strapwork-carved brackets supporting a broken cornice, also in the mid-19th-century Gothic style.

On the left, there is a hood mould over a sunk-chamfered stone-mullioned and transomed window, with pediments over similar windows to the right. The first floor has hood moulds over similar three-light mullioned windows. At the rear, there is a hollow-chamfered light and a four-centred chamfered archway leading to the passage. The rear right wing, which is early 16th century and remodelled in the late 17th and 20th centuries, is made of similar materials and also stands two storeys with an attic. It features a five-window range with two similar two-light mullioned windows, and a 16th-century gabled timber-framed dormer with a four-light wood-mullioned window and turned pendentives.

The rear of No. 3 (to the left) has a similar two-light mullioned window and a mid to late 18th-century two-storey wing with sash and 19th-century casements. Inside, the early 16th-century rear right wing has stop-chamfered beams and a queen-post roof, with an arch-braced collar-truss at the front. The front range has a late 17th-century collar-truss roof with butt purlins and side struts, a 16th-century moulded stone fireplace, and a 16th-century pointed-chamfered doorway leading to the stair-turret, which contains winder stairs. No. 3 has not been inspected but is likely to be of interest.