Batchfoot Retirement Home Including Wall And Terrace

Batchfoot Retirement Home, originally a rectory and later a hotel, was built in 1812. It is constructed of rubble, rendered on the front elevation, with a slate roof. The building is a long rectangular block with a main entrance and staircase on the southwest end, and rooms arranged along a central corridor. A terrace was added in the late 20th century at the front of the building.

The front façade is five windows wide, with 12-pane sashes on the first floor and deep 15-pane sashes on the ground floor, all with stone sills. A basement window is a 3-light stone mullion casement with diagonal saddle bars. The southwest gable has an oculus above two 12-pane sashes at ground and first floors, with painted sashes mimicking the appearance of the real ones; the basement has a 19th-century flush panel door flanked by a 12-pane sash and a 20th-century part-glazed door. Window surrounds are flush dressed. The rear elevation features six small-pane 2-light casements under segmental brick arches, with a recessed double opening on the ground floor at the centre. A large 20th-century dormer with two 3-light casements is present. The building has four rendered stacks with deep capping. A plain rendered string course runs along the front, returning at the gable ends. The roof has deep eaves with small brackets along the verges.

The entrance hall contains a cornice, a ceiling rose, and a simple quarter-landing staircase. There are two further dogleg staircases off the central corridor on the north side, leading to the basement. Some original cornices remain, although doors have been modified for fire regulations, and original plank doors are found in the basement. The attics, now sub-divided, were originally one open space, with two thick party walls including wide openings to pointed arches. An oculus in the east gable is contained within a similar sunken pointed arch, which is not expressed externally.

A remaining section of a former stable block consists of a roughly 4-meter long wall constructed of coursed stone with a concrete parapet and an entrance to a sunken external passageway. A terrace of slate slabs, approximately 3 meters deep, extends across the east end at basement level, which corresponds to ground level due to the site’s slope.

The property includes a terrace and a retaining wall. The rectory is unusually planned and in a well-maintained condition, with minimal alterations from its original design.