Albion House

Albion House is a house dating from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, with extensions added in the early to mid-19th century. The exterior is largely covered in slate hanging. The roofs are slate, with a half-hipped section over the original part, featuring tall brick chimneys on the original side walls. Other sections have hipped roofs with brick chimneys on the sides, and over a cross wall of a rear wing. Two chimneys were removed in the 20th century, but a large external breast remains. Cast-iron ogee gutters are also present.

The original layout consisted of a living room on the left, a smaller parlour on the right, flanking a cross passage leading to a central stair between two narrower rear service rooms. Extensions were added in the early to mid-19th century on both sides, the two-storey wing to the left accommodating a range of service rooms that project to the rear and return to the right, partially enclosing a rear courtyard. The wing to the right is a single-storey drawing room, linked to the original parlour and as deep as the original house. A later lean-to was added to the rear of this wing, along with single-storey buildings ranging around the rear courtyard, including one opposite the rear of the original house, with a wide doorway or porte cochere.

The south front has a nearly symmetrical 1:3:1 window arrangement. The central three windows belong to the original house, flanked by originally identical, taller single-storey fronts of hip-ended wings. The main doorway has an original 12-pane hornless sash window above. The door itself is a six-panel design with flush beaded bottom panels and a doorcase featuring pilasters, a moulded architrave, dentilled frieze, panelled reveals, and a soffit. Flanking ground and first-floor windows are 16-pane hornless sashes. The wings on the left and right have original tall central hornless sashes with thin glazing bars and narrower panes to the sides and middle. The left-hand wing, originally designed to appear as a single-storey front to maintain symmetry, has an upper floor partially hidden behind the upper sash and a wide, three-light casement has been inserted above. Several original hornless sashes remain on other elevations.

The west front has a stuccoed ground floor on the left, above studwork, and slate hanging. There’s a large slate-hung outshut projection to the right of the middle, possibly originally intended for a service stair, now with a 20th-century window on the ground floor and an older, tripartite horned dormered sash above. The interior was not inspected.

Albion House is notable for its interesting 19th-century plan development, the survival of the original house, and the presence of scantle slate roofs, extensive slate hanging, and a large number of original sash windows.