Lambe Creeke House

Lambe Creeke House is a farmhouse, possibly originally an inn, dating to the 18th century or earlier, with significant remodelling in the early 19th century. It is built with stucco over stone rubble walls and has scantle slate roofs, including hipped sections over the south-west range, stair turret, and lean-tos. The house has an irregular U-shaped plan. Originally likely a 3-room plan with later service wings, it was remodelled in the early 19th century to include a hall, lower end with a rear wing creating three reception rooms, and an entrance passage. The upper end, built into a bank, contains a large kitchen with three hearths, and incorporates part of the rear wing.

The south-west garden front has a slightly irregular arrangement of three and one windows. The right-hand bay is at a higher level with a lean-to on its right side. Architectural details include a plinth, mid-floor band, rusticated quoins, and stucco lions' heads over window openings. A stuccoed wall with an urn stands to the left. The windows are early 19th-century hornless sashes with crown glass. The ground floor has taller openings with a 20-pane sash to the left and right, and a 20th-century French window in the middle. First-floor windows are 16-pane sashes. The north-west entrance front has similar stucco detailing but without the lions' heads; it features a 1:2:1 bay arrangement. An early 20th-century bay is slightly recessed on the left, with an arched carriageway leading to a rear courtyard. A bay has been resited, and the entrance is in the third bay with a marginal glazed door. A projecting bay on the right has an arched opening, altered in the 20th century, to the ground floor, and a blind window above, painted to resemble early 19th-century 16-pane hornless sashes. The rear elevation has an original round-headed stair sash with intersecting glazing bars, and two circa 1800 two-light casements to the service area.

The interior retains significant early 19th-century detail, including panelled doors, architraves, panelled window shutters, plaster ceilings, and cast iron grates within original surrounds. A prominent open-well staircase has stick balusters and a Vitruvian scroll frieze. The vestibule and stair hall are adorned with an acanthus over bead and reel ceiling cornice. One room has an egg and dart over bead and reel cornice and a hob grate; an adjacent room has a moulded cornice and a hob grate with a black marble surround and consoles. The kitchen/bakehouse includes an oven within a hooded hearth to the north-east wall, and two large adjoining hearths to the north-west wall. On the first floor, a plaster barrel vault covers the passage, and a vaulted ceiling features in the north room, alongside an original grate with shell mouldings. Some late 18th-century two-panel doors remain; one has HL hinges and another a sprung latch. The early 19th-century remodelling adapted an earlier plan to create a fashionable garden front and a side entrance front. The elevations within the rear courtyard, including an iron pump over a well, contribute to the unspoiled character of the house.