The Hermitage

The Hermitage

A mid-19th century Italianate villa with a rear service wing, substantially altered and extended in the late 19th century and again in the 20th century. The late 19th-century alterations and additions to the east range were designed by architect Henry Crisp.

The building is constructed of rendered stone with hipped roofs featuring bands of plain and scallop-shaped slate tiles to the outer pitches. Clay chimney pots sit atop the rendered stacks. The west range has mid-19th century hornless sash windows, while the east range features late 19th-century horned sash windows, some with margin lights. The north elevation of the east range includes a late 18th or early 19th-century eight-over-eight hornless sash window. An iron weather vane crowns the belvedere tower.

The plan comprises two parallel, two-storey ranges at differing floor levels. The principal mid-19th century Italianate west range, which contains a cellar, is accessed via a porch on the south elevation. It houses the entrance hall with the principal staircase, a four-storey belvedere tower to the north, and the principal reception rooms and bedrooms. The east range contains the kitchen, scullery, larder and store, with the late 19th-century former billiard room (now subdivided) to the south of the service rooms. A late 19th-century staircase inserted between the kitchen and billiard room provides access to the former servant's bedrooms.

The principal west range displays deeply bracketed eaves, a heavily moulded cill band, and quoins with shaped ends featuring a stippled effect on the quoins and plinth. The central entrance porch on the south elevation has a six-panel 19th-century door with a semi-circular fanlight. An elongated keystone rises to the deep eaves of the shallow pyramidal roof, which is supported on scrolled stone corbels. Console brackets on low walls flank either side of the doorway. The gable end stack to the left has quoin work to the ground floor and a round-arched niche with an elongated keystone and pilasters to the first floor.

Both the west and north elevations of the principal range feature first-floor tripartite sash windows with horizontal glazing bars set beneath round-arched heads with elongated keystones extending to the eaves. The left-hand bay of the west elevation forms a garden seat with a pair of short Tuscan pilasters either side, and above, a pair of sash windows set within a recessed niche with segmental head. The right-hand bay steps forward with a ground-floor bow window containing three full-height windows, above which the cill band steps forward and is supported on stone corbels. The north elevation repeats this arrangement and includes the four-storey belvedere tower with a sweeping pyramidal roof topped with an ornate weather vane. The tower has one-over-one horned sash windows and tripartite round-arched windows with elongated keystones to the fourth storey.

The late 19th-century east range is plainer in appearance. The south elevation denotes private rooms with three sash windows to the ground floor and a tripartite window to the first floor.

Internally, the porch has a mosaic floor and Lincrusta (a deeply embossed wall covering invented in 1877) wallpaper to dado height, continuing into the entrance hall and mimicking wall panelling. The entrance hall also has a Lincrusta ceiling and frieze in the style of 17th-century plasterwork, beneath which runs egg and dart moulding. The open-well staircase has an open string, stick balusters and a curtail step with wreathed handrail. The stairwell ceiling features a barrel-style vault with bolection moulding beneath, decorated with ornamental stops. A stained glass window with a central wreath motif at the north end of the first-floor landing divides the stairwell from the tower.

The principal reception rooms all have panelled window shutters, decorative plaster cornices and re-used early 19th-century Regency fireplaces, though the grates have been removed. The first-floor bedrooms in the west range also retain early 19th-century Regency fireplaces. Throughout, there is a mixture of six and four-panel doors. The east range, apart from the former billiard room, is plainer, and the fireplaces have been removed.

The east range has a late 19th-century tie-beam roof with some 20th-century renewal and repair of timbers. The roof to the west range was not inspected.