The Hermitage

The Hermitage is a house that likely dates from the late 17th century, with additions and alterations made in the 19th century. It is constructed of hand-made brick and some flint, mostly covered by roughcast painted white, with some weatherboarding at the rear and brick chimneys. The building has a shallow U-shaped plan formed by a three-unit single-depth main range, with extensions at each end and projecting wings added to the front of both sides.

The house is two storeys tall and has five bays. The main range features a plinth, and there is a two-storey flat-roofed porch in the re-entrant angle to the right, which has 19th-century hoodmoulds over both the doorway and a 12-pane sash window above. To the left, the ground floor has a central 12-pane sash window that breaks the plinth, also with a similar hoodmould, and a canted bay window to the left of this. The first floor has two 12-pane sashes. Each wing has a canted bay window at ground floor and a 12-pane sash above. The building has ridge chimneys and gable chimneys, all featuring cornices.

At the rear, there is a ground-floor loggia that supports a weather-boarded corridor added to the first floor. The ground floor includes a plinth that incorporates some flint, a central doorway, and two 12-pane sashes. The added upper floor has two 16-pane sashes, with the first bay of the addition at the east end projecting and featuring a small segmental-headed window on each floor. The end bay has a dormer, and a square weather-boarded outbuilding with a pyramidal roof overlaps it.

Inside, the building has been altered, but the three-bay roof of the main range retains four sets of collar trusses, with the first and fourth trusses close to the gable walls made of modern brick, and coupled rafters that show scratched carpenter's marks. The joists are tenoned into a central purlin and also bear carpenter's marks in Roman numerals. Historically, Fanny Burney is said to have lived here around 1790 to 1800.