Rock House And Adjacent Range Of Outbuildings To Rear

Rock House is a substantial country house, apparently built and designed around 1814 by John Rennie, the engineer of the Grand Western Canal. It is constructed of coursed rubble limestone and sandstone, with ashlar quoins, and has hipped slate and pantiled roofs. The house has a central staircase double-depth plan with a rear service wing connected to an extensive range of outbuildings. Axial stacks are present. The house is 2½-storeys, with the central bay rising to 3 storeys.

The front facade is symmetrical, with a 2:1:2 bay arrangement. A tall, narrow, projecting entrance bay features ashlar quoining, a cornice that extends around the top and is surmounted by a recessed parapet. A semi-circular window with a hornless sash, 9 panes above and 6 below, is positioned on the second floor. The first floor has a 12-pane hornless sash window. A moulded stringcourse serves as the cornice of the porch entablature, which is ornamented with a frieze of triglyphs, four large Doric columns, panelled reveals to the doorway, a panelled door, and a rectangular barred fanlight. The flanking bays have 16-pane hornless sash windows to the first and second floors, with 6-pane attic windows; the flanking bays are slightly recessed with 12-pane sash windows to the first and second floors. All first and second-floor windows are set within pronounced stone window arches. Stone coursing alternates between sandstone and limestone.

The left-hand side elevation presents a three-bay facade with 16-pane hornless sash windows and a central door sheltered by a 19th-century glazed porch. To the left of the front is a carriage entry under a round-headed arch with a keystone, large pediment, and pilaster quoins. A long range of outbuildings extends from this point, but at a different alignment. The side facing the road presents a forbidding exterior, a tall wall without openings. The inner elevation of this range has two carriage entrances, a string course, and three openings above, all with heavy stone jambs and lintels. A stable block is positioned at right angles to this range, featuring a carriageway arch, a keystone, block capitals, and a gable wall with a round-headed opening. The building has heavy coping and quoins. Rainwater from the roofs of the house and outbuildings is collected in a stone gutter, which runs along the entire range, forming the base of the stable gable wall and discharging into a large storage tank at the end of the building.

The interior has plain carpentry details, and there are labyrinthine cellars cut into the bedrock.