Grey House And No 2 With Attached Walls

A pair of attached houses, dating to around 1800, built on top of the Amherst Battery, with attached walls facing the sea. The battery itself dates to circa 1770 and has undergone 20th-century alterations. The houses are constructed of painted sandstone rubble at the basement level, rendered at ground floor, and slate-hung above. They have a hipped slate roof with brick stacks to the rear.

Each house is of single depth, with a two-room plan and a central entrance. The gun platform of the battery extends to the east, featuring sandstone rubble walls. Each house is three storeys high with three windows. The windows in Grey House are 20th-century casements with glazing bars, while those in No. 2 are UPVC sashes. Grey House has a central replacement six-panelled door within a plain surround topped with a dentilled pediment. No. 2 also has a six-panelled door with a plain overlight and a dentilled pediment. Both have two basement windows. A 20th-century casement is positioned on the left side of Grey House at ground floor, with a statue fixed at the upper level.

The interior of Grey House features an entrance to a stair hall with a dog-leg staircase to the rear, incorporating a moulded handrail, stick balusters bearing worm-holes caused by the teredo worm, column newels, and a moulded string, with horizontal panelling to the side walls. A room to the front left contains a panelled partition wall and dado panelling to the outer walls, a moulded cornice, and cupboards to the rear left and right. The room to the front right is fully panelled, with a six-panelled door. A chimneypiece to the rear has pilasters, a frieze with a Greek key moulding, and a moulded mantel, alongside panelled cupboards to the right and left. A cupboard with a round-arched Gothic glazed door, featuring pilasters and a dentil cornice, is located in the front corner, accompanied by a dado rail and panelled window shutters. On the first floor, a room to the left has a cornice and dado panelling, with a cupboard to the rear and a four-panelled door. The room to the right features a panelled partition wall, dado panelling, cupboards with drawers to the rear, and a cornice. At the second floor, there are four-panelled doors, dado panelling, and rear cupboards; the room to the right contains a chimneypiece with an eared architrave and a moulded mantel. The basement level was originally the powder magazine for the battery. The interior of No. 2 has not been inspected.

The battery walls were designed to control the Kingsand and Cawsand beaches using “12 eighteen pounders.” The remaining structure consists of a gun platform jutting from the cliffside, approximately 50 feet above sea level. The seaward-facing wall is roughly 20 feet high and 85 feet long, with buttresses. Sixty-seven feet of the parapet is barbette, with the remainder being embattled; part of the north-east corner has been rebuilt.