Sharlands House including front wall and former stable

Sharlands House including front wall and former stable

A house with front garden wall and stables, built in 1912 by architect G A E Schwabe for T A Falcon, with alterations made in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

The house is constructed of dressed local stone walls with some pebbledash elevations and cement dressings. The roofs are covered in slate, and cast-iron rainwater goods are decorated with lion emblems. Interior timber joinery throughout the building includes sash windows, panelling, and panelled doors with brass furniture.

The house is two storeys in height, in part with an attic, and is rectangular on plan. It features two projecting single-storey wings either side of the centre to the road front (east). The central hallway contains stairs to the rear and principal rooms on each side.

The exterior displays a playful and free Georgian style informed by Arts and Crafts principles of design. The roofs have oversailing eaves and pyramidal form with modest detailing. The central section of the façade, finished in stone, projects forward from the pebbledash bays on each side and is framed by stone stacks with slender cement coping and pebbledash to the chimney pots. A central double-leaf door has a fanlight within a round arch with dressed voussoirs. A four-over-four sash sits under a stone head on each side, with an eight-over-eight sash above and a cast-iron downpipe to the right. Single-storey stone wings with flat roofs frame the entrance and are attached to a stone garden wall and gate. Stone steps lead to the front door. The right wing has a small opening to the road, formerly a coal hole. The rear of the left wing is enclosed in a garden room or study with two casements and an attached lean-to glasshouse.

The symmetrical garden front to the south has paired French doors with blank fanlights in cement architraves below eight-over-eight sashes with margin lights, and a central cast-iron downpipe. The west elevation displays eclectic fenestration with a stair window to the left of centre and a variety of sash openings. A projecting chimneystack breaks through the eaves to the right of this elevation. The north elevation, facing the stable, has an eight-over-eight sash with margin lights to the left and an eight-over-eight sash above. To the right are a sympathetic early 21st-century replacement door and slender sashes framed by cement render with a sealed opening above. To the far left are a door and window to the single-storey service wing attached to the front of the house.

The front door opens into a vestibule with a glazed door to a marble-tiled hallway featuring decorative panelling to the frieze and ceiling. The hallway contains a rear staircase and doors to the drawing room, dining room, kitchen and cloakroom. The principal rooms have plaster cornices and picture rails. The drawing room has panelled double-leaf sliding doors to the former dining room, with a painted panel of geometric design fixed to each side. On the east wall is a marble chimneypiece with an ornate cast-iron fireplace, a panelled timber surround and tiled hearth. To its right is an inserted doorway to the study. The dining room has a copper and tin chimneypiece engraved with the date 1912 and a dragonfly motif in Art Nouveau style, with a beaten copper and lead lip to the tiled hearth and a timber mantelpiece and surround. The kitchen has been opened out to a dining area in the former scullery, with an inglenook opening at its east end. The pine staircase balustrade has square stick balusters and flattened urn finals to square newels. The bedrooms retain original joinery including cornice picture rails. Fireplaces have been removed or sealed in some rooms. The attic space is partly boarded and floored.

The detached stable on the north side of the house is constructed of rubblestone with brick quoins and is single storey plus attic, formerly the loft or tallet. The pitched roof is covered in slate and a swan windvane is fixed to the west gable above a modern external timber stair to an attic door. The elevation facing the house has a modern door and shutter opening to the left. At the centre is a window and a dormer above with an oversailing roof in the manner of a hoist. To the far right is a stable door under a brick head. The interior retains the original brick floors, stall and manger.