Sowden House

Sowden House is a detached house dating back to around 1700, with significant remodelling likely occurring around 1819 when Captain Thomas Williams retired here from the Royal Navy. The house is constructed of roughcast cob with stone footings, and has a hipped roof covered in bitumen-coated slate. Originally a two-room, through-passage house, it now incorporates a rear kitchen wing and rear extensions from the 19th century.

Architecturally, the main front elevation presents a slightly asymmetrical three-window range. The principal rooms are lit by tripartite sash windows with 4:12:4 panes and no horns. A round-headed 12-pane hornless sash window is located above the porch light stair landing. The porch has a moulded cornice supported by square-section wooden columns and pilasters. The door surround features a small cyma-recta moulding and a half-glazed door. Three dormers, dating from the late 19th or early 20th century, are set into the roof. The left-hand side elevation has one 12-pane hornless sash window on the first floor and two 3-light casement windows on the ground floor. A 2-light casement window dating back to around 1700, with 24 leaded panes per light, 2 decorated catches, and 1 stanchion, illuminates a small room located behind the main range's rear stack. The right-hand end of the main range has no windows. The rear includes a lunette to the stair hall and various casement windows, with one 4:12:4 pane tripartite hornless sash window to the first floor.

The interior of the main rooms features boxed ceiling beams, and a chamfered lintel above the fireplace in the left-hand room. This stack also originally served a fireplace facing the rear wing, which included a side oven, though both are now blocked; a bolection moulded surround remains. This room is accessible via two early fielded panel doors. The rear wing has one rough ceiling cross beam. A 19th-century dog-leg staircase features a ramped rail and stick balusters. Other original features include early 19th-century joinery and fireplaces. The roof structure comprises four trusses that descend clearly into the walls, with crossed, halved, and pegged joints at the apex, halved and pegged collars, and trenched purlins.