Splatts House

Splatts House is a substantial house built in 1729 for F and P Child. It is constructed of chequered brick with ashlar dressings, topped with a slate roof and end stacks. The house is two storeys and an attic, with a five-window front.

The formal east front features a moulded plinth, rusticated quoins, a moulded string, a coved cornice, and a parapet with corner urns. A central porch bay projects forward with a balustrade, and there are two dormers visible. The main windows are segment-headed, set within raised bead-moulded surrounds and feature keystones. They contain C19 plate glass sashes. A string course and cornice projects over the keystones. The porch bay has windows matching those on the first floor front and sides. The ground floor side doors are in segment-headed surrounds, and the front door is within a moulded architrave with a broad shell hood on scroll brackets. The inner door has an architrave and fielded panels, hinting at a possible removed hood and suggesting that the porch bay may be an addition.

The rear of the house has four windows and a coved eaves cornice. The upper floor is complete, the first floor has a dripcourse, but one window has been removed, and the ground floor has a door in a moulded surround and a dripcourse above two windows to the right, one of which has been removed. To the left is a moulded stone plaque inscribed "FCP 1729", followed by two superimposed mullion and transom two-light stair windows.

A C19 rear wing connects to a two-storey gabled outbuilding with an asbestos sheet roof and a coped south gable. The east side of this outbuilding has a bead-moulded two-light upper window and a ground floor single-light window. The south end wall features a moulded plinth, flush quoins, and an ashlar gable with six tiers of dove openings. The west side has recessed cyma-moulded mullion windows, two two-light windows flanking an upper door, and a three-light window with a dripstone below.

The interior of the house has been largely altered in the C19 and retains some panelled shutters. The outbuilding to the rear has a full-width circular opening in the first floor at the north end, the purpose of which is unknown. Splatts was the estate of the Child family from the 16th century until 1780. Sir Francis Child (1642-1720) founded Child’s Bank in London.