Warren Hastings House And Hastings Hill House

Warren Hastings House and Hastings Hill House

A pair of late 17th-century houses, possibly incorporating parts of an earlier building, remodelled in the early 18th century with later additions and alterations. They are built of roughly coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings and quoins. Warren Hastings House has a concrete tile roof with coped verges, while Hastings Hill House retains stone slate roofing, also with coped verges.

Warren Hastings House is a two-storey structure with an attic. The road front displays a 20th-century leaded casement window that replaced the original glazing bar sash, set within a plain stone surround with a keystone to each floor. A gabled dormer sits directly above in the roof slope. A late 19th-century memorial plaque on the first floor commemorates Warren Hastings, noting he was born in this house on 6 December 1732 and died on 22 August 1818. The integral ashlar end stacks feature moulded dripstone and capping; the left stack was rebuilt above the dripstone in the 20th century.

To the rear, a long earlier gabled range runs at right angles, with its original entrance front facing west. This rear elevation has five first-floor windows: glazing bar sashes with wood lintels set directly below the eaves, narrow to the left, two to the centre, and infilled to the right with a leaded wooden mullioned and transomed window at the far right. The ground floor has leaded casements with chamfered wooden lintels to the left and right of an infilled doorway; to the right of this is an infilled opening and a leaded window with wood lintel, followed by a chamfered rectangular window with dripstone. Two gabled dormers are positioned in the centre of the roof slope. An integral ashlar end stack to the left has moulded dripstone and capping. A fragment of the gable end of a former attached barn survives below, with a wide gabled 19th-century addition built on its site. The east side shows scattered 20th-century casements on both floors and a 20th-century ledged door beneath a 19th-century bracketed segmental stone hood at the far left. An extruded integral lateral stack with moulded dripstone and capping runs through the centre.

Hastings Hill House follows a basic L-plan with a gabled range to the rear on the left. Two late 19th-century casements sit within 18th-century stone surrounds; those to the first floor have projecting keystones. Two two-light chamfered leaded mullion windows light the cellar. A six-panel door stands to the right with a small window above. Two 19th-century gabled dormers pierce the roof slope. An integral end stack to the left was rebuilt in the 20th century above its dripstone. A gabled staircase projection to the rear, positioned in the angle between the front and rear ranges, has a chamfered rectangular window lighting the cellar and an apparently reused single-chamfered doorway with hoodmould, probably from the 14th century and possibly brought from the Old Church. This doorway has a chamfered rectangular opening inserted into its infill.

Interior of Warren Hastings House: The front part retains an infilled chamfered stone fireplace to the right stack, with the hearth-stone of the first-floor fireplace visible in the ceiling above. This stone is covered with late 17th or early 18th-century plaster decoration showing thistles, grapes and rosettes, inscribed with initials "RW", probably for Robert Walter. A plain cross beam features lock and key carving, with exposed joists visible. A late 17th or early 18th-century dog-leg staircase in the main range rises to the attic with barleysugar balusters, a moulded handrail and square newels; it blocks a leaded window on the ground floor and partly obscures a chamfered wooden mullioned and transomed window above, which is presumably earlier than the staircase. An oak spiral staircase rises to the attic to the right of the lateral stack, which has a chamfered stone fireplace with keystone on the ground floor. Chamfered and plain ceiling beams and joists appear on both floors, and several 18th-century two-panel doors survive.

Interior of Hastings Hill House: Only partial inspection was possible at the time of resurvey in August 1987. A right ground-floor room has a deep-chamfered wood lintel. An infilled doorway formerly connected to Hastings Hill House to the left of the fireplace. An oak winder staircase in the gabled projection leads to the attic, with a continuation in stone leading down to the cellar, which features a twin barrel rubblestone vault.

Warren Hastings was the first Governor-General of India.