The Moorlands

The Moorlands is a large house, dated to the 18th century, with substantial additions from 1881 and later alterations. Originally a compact, symmetrical double-depth house, it was extended in 1881 with a long rear range and a tall observation tower to the left of the main house. An enclosed yard with service buildings lies in front of the tower. In the mid-1990s, a wing of flats was added to the west of the observation tower, but this addition is not considered to be of special interest.

The main house is two storeys high, with full-height octagonal bays featuring large, plain sash windows at each level, set within heavy stone sills. A central plain sash window sits above a panelled door recessed within a Doric half-column doorcase with an entablature. A broad mid-plate band and a cornice with a blocking course featuring blind octofoils and vertical slot panel embellishment are also present. Ashlar stacks rise from four coped gables. The right return includes various sash windows, a steel escape stair, and some late 20th-century additions, alongside a third coped gable belonging to the 1881 range, to which a small gabled wash house and stack are attached. The left return displays an exposed gable, a two-storey gabled wing with sash windows, and a section of the long rear range, including a plank door to an arched opening within a small, single-bay link leading to the tall square observation tower.

The tower rises six storeys high, with a cornice and crenellated parapet above plain sash windows, displaying incised embellishment to the lintels under a stopped drip course. At the fifth level are two such sashes and a central oculus, all beneath a common drip course with a segmental centre over the oculus. The tower’s return features two sash windows at the top levels with drip courses, but without embellishment. The rear of the tower has a central buttress or chimney shaft above a deep wing with 20th-century windows to the outer gable. The rear of the house is a long, continuous plane, two storeys high, with large, plain, single or paired sash windows and a plank door to a blocked arched head adjacent to the tower. A stone modillion eaves cornice sits above a cast iron box gutter, with coped verges; the first four bays have coped ends, and the following two bays have four terracotta ridge vents and a pierced square finial. A ridge vent is also present on the link bay.

To the left of the main front is a coped rubble wall enclosing a small rectangular yard extending the full width, returning and stopping at a square pier with a pyramid capping approximately 6 metres from the tower base. Within the yard is a small service range with a low-pitched double Roman tile roof, plank doors, and four-light casements.

The interior of the main building was partially inspected in the late 20th century. A lobby with margin pane, part-glazed inner doors leads to a hall with a Minton tile floor, flanked by the main rooms. Each room has wide, elliptical recesses to the rear, with an opened and glazed panel leading into the room to the left. Original working shutters and panelled mullions are present in each room, along with late 19th-century fireplaces; one features a white marble surround brought from elsewhere in the complex. A large square inner hall, also with a Minton tile floor, contains an original stone grand open-well staircase, but with a late 20th-century replacement balustrade. A former roof-light has been under-ceiled.