Russels

Russels is a house that incorporates part of a former maltings, dating from the 16th or 17th century, with significant alterations made in the mid to late 19th century. The building is constructed of plastered stone rubble, possibly with cob, and includes some brick from the former maltings. It features a stone rubble stack topped with 19th-century brick and has a slate roof that was once thatched.

The main block of the house faces southwest onto the street and contains one large unheated room, with a passage at the left end leading back to a stair turret that projects to the rear. Originally, there were two rooms in the main block. A rear block projects at right angles to the back of the right end, and a former malthouse at the left end has been converted for domestic use. Although later alterations have obscured the original layout, the main block is believed to be from the 16th or 17th century and may not have originally served as a domestic house. It is thought that the original house was larger and included the adjoining property known as Hurleys.

The house is two storeys high, with a regular two-window front. The ground floor features 20-pane sash windows, while the first floor has 16-pane sashes. A third ground floor window blocks a pre-19th-century doorway. The present doorway at the left end has a stucco architrave with a moulded entablature on scroll consoles, and it contains a 20th-century door. The roof is gable-ended to the right and runs continuously with the roof of the adjoining cottage to the left.

Inside, the beams in the main ground floor room indicate that there was once a through-passage from the blocked front doorway. Each former room crossbeam has deep soffit-chamfers with double step stops. The roof of the main block is supported by a series of clean side-pegged jointed cruck trusses, while the other carpentry details are plain. The joinery is from the 19th and 20th centuries. Russels is part of a group of attractive listed buildings in the centre of Holcombe Rogus village.