Hatt House

Hatt House is a complex building representing several phases of development. The rear range probably dates from the late 16th or early 17th century, possibly with earlier origins. Around 1710, a substantial new house was built attached to the front of the old structure. Further alterations were made in the later 18th century and during the 19th century, after which there have been few changes.

The early building is constructed of slatestone and granite rubble with a slate roof, half-hipped to the left and with a gable end facing the front wing. Most chimneys have been removed except for the gable end stack to the front wing, and parts are clad in asbestos slate. The early 18th-century building is in brick laid in Flemish bond, with a hipped slate roof featuring 19th-century crested ridge tiles. Chimneys with brick shafts survive to the sides and rear right.

Plan and Development

The rear range represents all that remains of the late 16th- or early 17th-century house. It consists of two rooms, possibly with a passage between them. These rooms were originally aligned east to west, but the house is now oriented north to south with the main front facing east. In its original configuration, the house would have faced south, with the left-hand room serving as the hall, heated by a rear lateral stack, and the right-hand room probably functioning as a lower end room heated from a gable end stack to the right.

The original house must have been larger than these two surviving rooms. The wing at the front of the presumed hall is probably an early 18th-century rebuild, serving as a kitchen with an unheated dairy at the outer end. The hall range was relegated to service use, with the hall becoming the servants' hall when, around 1710, a large square-plan house was built behind the lower end of the original structure.

The new block's main front faces the garden to the east, from which point it is now described, with the early range forming the rear of the house. There are two principal rooms on the east front. Behind the larger left-hand room is the butler's pantry and the stair hall. Behind the smaller right-hand room is a back parlour, and behind this is a later entrance hall, built after the main front door leading into the left-hand room was blocked. There is a porch to the rear right of the house.

Additional alterations include the addition of a porch to the front of the early 18th-century kitchen range, which shelters a pump. Probably in the late 17th or early 18th century, a two-storey porch and stair tower was added in the angle between the original lower end and the early 18th-century kitchen; this stair serves the main rear range. There is a secondary service stair in the early 18th-century kitchen.

Exterior

The principal garden front is the building of around 1710. It is of two storeys and attic on a plinth, presenting a symmetrical five-window front with a brick band course and brick pilasters to the sides. The cornice breaks forward over the pilasters and has looped and scalloped decoration, with decorative cast iron rainwater heads and pipes to left and right. There are five windows at ground and first floor, all 12-pane sashes of later 18th-century date with thin glazing bars in the original casings and openings with brick voussoirs. The central window at ground floor has voussoirs wider than the head of the window and may have been the original front door. There are two hipped dormers, each with a 6-pane sash.

At the right side, there are four windows, with the plinth, band course and cornice continued, terminating at the right as a parapet over the later 18th-century entrance hall. At first floor, all windows are 12-pane sashes. The ground floor has three 12-pane sashes, and at the far right a recessed porch with a pair of slender Doric columns, an inner six-panelled door with pilasters to the sides and a cornice.

The rear of the entrance hall is rendered and lined out, with plinth and band course. The ground floor right has a 12-pane window with a round head and Gothic glazing bars; the first floor has two 12-pane sashes. The rear of the main 18th-century range has a large 12-pane sash with a round head and Gothic glazing bars lighting the stair hall, and a small 9-pane sash above lighting the attic landing. To the right is a two-storey lean-to containing the butler's pantry; this is rendered and has a large 20th-century three-light window at ground floor and a 9-pane sash at first floor.

The early range is at the left side of the 18th-century building. The kitchen is to the left, with the two-storey porch and stair tower at centre and the parlour wing projecting to the front right. The kitchen and dairy are rendered. At ground floor there is a pitched scantle slate roof sheltering a pump dated 1871 with a granite basin, an outer ventilator door, and an inner plain door. The first floor has a wide four-light window, formerly larger, with 20th-century glazing. The roof has a half-hip to the left end and a bellcote with an ogee lead roof, weathervane and bell.

The two-storey porch has a hipped roof, a four-panelled door with a slate hood, and at first floor a two-light 12-pane casement with L-hinges; it is partly asbestos slate-hung. The parlour wing has a front gable end clad in asbestos slate, with mounting steps and block attached. The inner side of the wing (to the left) has a three-light casement at ground floor with iron stanchions, a 19th-century 12-pane sash at first floor to the right, and a four-pane 20th-century window at first floor right. The left end of the range is roughcast at ground floor and slate-hung at first floor, with a single window at ground floor to the right lighting the dairy.

The rear of the early range shows a straight joint between the original hall and the rebuilt lower end; the roofs are separate, with the lower end kitchen and dairy under one roof, and the hall and front parlour wing roofed together. The hall has a five-light 8-pane casement with L-hinges, with some rebuilding of the wall below the window, and a three-light casement with iron stanchions above. To the right, the kitchen has a four-light 20th-century casement, and the dairy has a two-light casement; there is a 20th-century two-light casement at first floor.

Interior

The 18th-century house: The front left room has complete fielded panelling with panelled shutters to the windows, probably of late 18th-century date, installed when the front entrance was closed. The fireplace and ceiling are 20th century. The front right room has bolection-moulded panelling with a dado rail, the moulded plaster cornice surviving, with a marble chimneypiece and early 19th-century scalloped pelmets to the windows. Both rooms have six-panelled fielded doors.

The stair hall contains an open-well stair with turned balusters and a swept moulded wreathed handrail, rising to attic level. There is a two-panelled door to a cupboard under the stairs. The rear right room is a parlour or study with a marble Adam-style chimneypiece and cupboards to right and left. The first floor has six-panelled doors.

The early house: The original hall has a granite fireplace with a vestigial ogee with roundel and large roll-moulding to the surround. A 19th-century boiler stands to the left. The ceiling has a central circle of plasterwork, probably of the early 17th century, decorated with fruit and leaves.

The hall chamber has an early 18th-century two-panelled door leading to the room over the kitchen and a door to the front lateral corridor. There is no fireplace over the hall stack; the room is heated from a fireplace at the lower end, using the flue from the kitchen fireplace. There is one boxed principal rafter rising from floor level, which appears to be a cruck truss.

The original lower end has one room at ground floor and one at first floor, each heated by the stack at the front gable end; both fireplaces are blocked. At first floor there is a 20th-century fireplace. On the inner wall at first floor is a fine cupboard, dating from around 1710, with a fluted shell back, shaped shelves and an original painted cherub's head with wings to each side and a central painted shield of arms. There are pilasters to the sides and lower shelves. A cupboard to the left of the fireplace has a two-panelled door, and coat-hooks set on heart-shaped plates; the room has a two-panelled door.

The storied porch and stair tower has an 18th-century winder stair and a two-panelled door to the unheated porch chamber.

The left end comprises the kitchen and dairy. The kitchen has a wide fireplace (to the axial stack), now blocked, with two ovens to the right with cast iron doors. The ceiling has narrow-chamfered beams. To the front left is a boxed winder stair. At the far left is the dairy, partitioned in the middle with a ventilator screen, with a slate floor and slate shelves.

The room over the kitchen has beams with narrow chamfers and run-out stops, and a blocked fireplace.

Roof

The roof over the kitchen and dairy is of later construction, probably 19th century when the bellcote was added. Of the early roof, only the concealed curved principal in the chamber over the hall survives, which may be a cruck. There are three trusses over the lower right end, now truncated, leaving only stubs exposed in the roof space. One of the trusses has a cambered collar with a chamfered soffit.

Hatt House retains high quality features from both the early phase and the early 18th century. The fluted shell cupboard is a very rare survival.