The Poplars

The Poplars

Large house built in the early 18th century, with substantial later 18th- and 19th-century additions and alterations, a late 19th-century rear addition, and 20th-century modifications. A range of flats added to the south-west in 1985 and the canted link block are excluded from this listing.

The main structure is constructed from coursed limestone rubble with stone dressings and ashlar, featuring slate roofs with gable stacks and partial rendering. A rear addition is built in brick. The building runs north-east to south-west, with the entrance positioned to the south-east and further additions extending north-westwards to the rear from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The early 18th-century main range is two storeys and seven bays, with the three central bays projecting forward beneath a pedimented gable, flanked by two window bays. These bays are distinguished by prominent long-and-short quoins, a moulded plinth, and a moulded eaves cornice. The central entrance bay contains a 20th-century studded door beneath a heavy pediment on shaped brackets. The window above is blocked, and blocked cellar windows appear to either side of the door. All windows in this range are small-paned nine-over-nine sash windows with thick glazing bars in plain stone surrounds.

The right-hand flanking bay, added in the later 18th century, is set back and lacks the quoins and plinth of the earlier section. Its windows are twelve-over-twelve sashes with thick glazing bars and exposed sash boxes. The ground-floor window has a solid lintel; the upper window features rough stone voussoirs. The right return is set back behind a partial screen wall altered in the 20th century, incorporating an external timber staircase to the first floor and uPVC casement windows.

The rear elevation features a large, gabled late 19th-century addition of two storeys and two windows, all with one-over-one plate-glass sashes. A single-storey addition to the left has two windows. A two-storey block to the right is now obscured by 1985 additions.

The left side elevation shows a double-depth, east-west wing balancing the main range. The ground floor has two narrow, six-over-six pane sashes and one twelve-over-twelve-pane sash at first floor, with no eaves cornice. The pitched roof rises above. The left return features an early 19th-century round-headed French window with margin glazing and splayed glazing bars in the top section, a canopied trellis verandah, and two sash windows above with thin glazing bars. Two small gables above have raised coped verges and stacks. A single-storey, later 19th-century ashlar canted bay window with three plate-glass sashes, cornice, parapet and coping appears to the left, with a matching sash window above and a gable with raised shaped stonework and a small ball finial. An angled, single-storey block built in 1985 with uPVC French doors with margin glazing links the earlier ranges to three blocks of flats added in 1985, running south-westwards; these and the link block are excluded.

The historic house is now divided into four flats, a guest suite, and communal areas. Rooms contain four- and six-panelled doors in panelled doorcases, flat moulded architraves, shutters in some rooms, and mainly later 19th-century fireplaces, some now lost. A double-height entrance hall occupies the projecting entrance bay and extends back through the original early 18th-century range. Its fireplace has a carved, dark timber surround with a later tiled interior. At the rear, a wide open-well stair rises to a galleried landing. The stair is open string with two turned balusters to each tread, a moulded handrail, and a wreathed curtail step.

The rooms flanking the entrance hall now form a guest suite and visitor facilities. To the rear right, one flat occupies part of the later 18th-century house and late 19th-century extensions with mainly later 20th-century fixtures. This includes a stone stair to the cellar beneath the main stair, extending under the entrance hall footprint. To the rear left, a late 20th-century partition beneath the main stair has a glazed section leading to communal spaces: a rear hall now used as a snooker room with a partitioned office section, featuring a narrow cornice. Doors from the former rear hall access two further communal rooms in the south-western range. One has been reduced to create a bathroom. It features early 19th-century arched-top French doors with shutters, a round-arched niche, simple cornice and chair rail, and a late 19th-century fireplace. The adjacent room has a canted bay window with a classical fireplace with eared marble inset and scrolling frieze beneath a moulded mantel, panelling below the sash windows, and a moulded cornice with narrow classical frieze.

The narrow, open-well secondary stair accessed from the rear hall is a simpler version of the main stair, with two turned balusters to each open tread and a ramped handrail. At first-floor level, a late 20th-century glazed partition tops the secondary stairs. Three flats occupy the first-floor rooms, the two larger extending rearwards from either side of the hall void, with the third in the later extensions. First-floor rooms have simpler decorative schemes without cornices and with simpler fire surrounds; some fireplaces have been removed.

A short length of rubble stone wall extends from the south-western corner of the main range, incorporating a stone doorway with a pointed-arched opening.