The Glebe Country House

The Glebe Country House, now a restaurant and guest house, dates from around the early to mid-18th century, with possible incorporation of an earlier structure, and was extended in the 18th and 19th centuries. The building is constructed of slatestone rubble, with slate hanging to the east front. It has a hipped, double span scantle slate roof which is steep, with sprocketted eaves to the earlier east section, featuring brick chimneys over the side walls linked to the main roof by small gable roofs. A rear lateral stack is situated to the left. The west section has a lower pitched hipped roof. The original layout comprised a rectangular ground floor plan with a central vestibule and stair, a rear service wing, and a later parallel range incorporated into a two-room rear addition.

The east front presents a symmetrical appearance with five windows. A central doorway is approached by a flight of granite steps with nosings. The flat-headed wooden doorcase features an ordered architrave and a simple entablature with dentils. The wide door is top-glazed, with an overlight above. Late 19th-century sash windows with pointed-arched lights are found on the ground floor. The first floor has mainly early 19th-century 18-paned sashes without horns. A cast iron, ogee eaves gutter with lion’s heads runs along the roofline and three roof dormers each have a 12-pane horned sash and a pedimented gable.

The north wall includes a central entrance with a six-panel door (now partially glazed) and a spoked fanlight. There are 12-pane, two-light casements to the basement of the earlier part to the left, a blocked window opening to the ground floor left, and an 18th-century 12-pane sash with wide glazing bars to the first floor.

Interior features include original details such as an open-well, open-string, turned baluster staircase with a ramped handrail, fielded dado panelling in the vestibule, stair and a small parlour to the left, full-height panelling to a room to the right, moulded ceiling cornices, two-panel doors, and recesses in the basement that may have been used for wine storage. The pine roof structure has slender collars mortised into heavy square section principal rafters with stepped purlin mortices. A rear, early 19th-century addition contains a ground floor room with a plaster ceiling band and cornice, as well as a moulded cornice to the rear vestibule.

Historical records indicate that in 1727 a “Glebe Terrier” described a house as partly stone and partly mud, with a thatched roof and including a hall floored with boards, a parlour, a small chamber, a buttery, a kitchen, and several other chambers. This is understood not to reflect the current building, which was likely built shortly afterwards.