Eastwell House

Eastwell House is a house with a complex history, largely dating from the late 17th or early 18th century, though it incorporates a core that may be from the 17th century and is said to have origins as early as the late 15th century. There were alterations in the 18th and 19th centuries. The house is roughcast with a slate hipped roof and a central brick stack. It has a basement, two storeys and an attic, built on a square plan with gabled projecting additions on all sides except the east. It features a timber dentilled eaves cornice and a similar dentilled string course over the ground floor. The windows are largely exposed-box 12-pane sashes. The east front has three windows, with a four-light early to mid-17th century basement window with ovolo-moulded mullions to the left. There are three dormers. The north front has been built out, partially in 1860, and incorporates an original gabled porch tower. It is now double-gabled with 9-pane attic windows, 12-pane first-floor windows on each side of a timber mullion- and-transom 3-light stair window, and a similar 2-light window below. A French window is to the right and a porch arch to the left. A further single-storey arched projection extends to the east, open to the north, with a timber oriel to the south. An ornate timber door surround, possibly re-used, has Corinthian pilasters and a hood on scrolled brackets, located to the east; old illustrations indicate this doorcase was originally positioned where the oriel now stands. The west front has a central bay built out around 1859, while the side bays retain the original fenestration and have hipped dormers. The basement features ovolo-moulded mullion windows. The south front also has a full-height basement and a right bay built out around 1859, with the remaining two bays retaining original fenestration and hipped dormers. The basement includes an ovolo-moulded arched stone doorway with a studded plank door, and a single 3-light ovolo-moulded mullion window. Inside, there is a panelled staircase on the north side. A north-east ground floor room has thick glazing bars of an early 18th-century type in its windows. The south-west room has fine raised moulded panelling dating to around 1700. Several fireplaces have large and ornate surrounds that appear to be made up in the 19th century from four-poster beds; a south-east projection contains one with delicate Renaissance portrait heads in relief. It is reported that the roof lead is dated 1489. The house was in the possession of the Grubbe family from the mid-15th century; Thomas Hunt-Grubbe is recorded as having put the house into order in 1772. Old illustrations indicate a steeper stone slate roof, which was allegedly altered around 1830.