Hayes Mount And Hayes Mount Cottage To The Rear

Hayes Mount and Hayes Mount Cottage to the rear is a late 18th-century house, refronted in 1794 by John Palmer, situated at the western end of an irregular terrace on a hillside north of London Road. The house is constructed of limestone ashlar to the south and west facades, with rubble stone to the remainder, and has a slate roof with moulded stacks.

The house has an irregular double-depth plan. The west entrance side presents a symmetrical three-window frontage with two storeys, an attic, and a lower ground floor. The west and south facades are characterised by a coped parapet, a modillion cornice, a glyph frieze articulated by foliate blocks, a ground floor sill band, and a Vitruvian scroll band above the ground floor. The windows are predominantly three/three-pane sashes to the first floor and six/six-pane sashes elsewhere, with many retaining horns. The west entrance has a plain projecting stone porch with double two-panel doors, and a half-glazed four-panel inner door with an overlight containing a three/three-pane sash window, flanked by Venetian windows with radial glazing bars to the tops; the right-hand Venetian window has painted glazing bars to the blind side lights. The south garden front features a full-height segmental bay window with three windows to each floor. The rear east wing, now Hayes Mount Cottage, has a six/six-pane sash window to the first floor, set within a semi-elliptical recess, the lower portion of which is now a garage door.

Internally, the house has been converted into flats. A cantilevered stone staircase and moulded door and window surrounds remain. Panelled shutters are in situ, though the interior has been extensively altered.

Hayes Mount was originally a villa on the edge of town with refined exteriors, designed in a fashionable Adam-inspired style. Harcourt Masters’s map of 1793 demonstrates that the property once had very large front gardens.