Holmdale Including Front Garden Area Wall And Gate Piers

Holmdale is a house dating from approximately the early 17th century, with significant remodelling in the late 17th or early 18th century and further alterations in the mid to late 20th century. The exterior is constructed of slate rubble, with rendering to the rear and ends. It has a steeply pitched hipped roof covered in asbestos tiles, and axial and end stacks with rendered shafts.

Originally, the house comprised three rooms and a through passage, with the lower left (south) room, the inner right-hand room, and the hall each heated by gable-end stacks, while the passage had a stack backing onto it. It is uncertain if the original house had an open roof, but this was altered during the late 17th or early 18th century when the roof was raised. A stairhall was created in the back of the hall, and a two-storey service wing with a lateral stack was added to the rear of the lower left end. A single-storey outshut was added to the rear of the high end in the mid to late 20th century, and a partition between the hall and the inner right-hand room (parlour) was removed.

The front of the house has an asymmetrical appearance with four windows. The first floor has circa early 19th-century 16-pane sash windows, while the ground floor has three early 19th-century tripartite sashes (4:12:4 panes), with slate sills and wooden lintels. A circa 20th-century plank door is set within a 20th-century open porch with a lean-to roof. The left side of the house features a projecting stack, a 20th-century casement window, and sashes, along with a truncated stack on the side of the rear wing. The rear of the house has small casements, a hipped roof wing to the right, and a 20th-century single-storey outshut.

Inside, the large right-hand room was created by removing a partition, reputedly a plank and muntin screen, between the hall and parlour. The hall retains a boxed-in chamfered crossbeam and a blocked fireplace, while the parlour has two round-headed cupboards with panelled doors flanking the end fireplace. Window shutters from the 18th century are also present. A late 17th or early 18th century straight-run open string staircase was inserted behind the hall, featuring splat balusters, a moulded handrail, and a replaced square newel post. A plank cupboard door under the stair has wrought iron hinges. The through passage has a fielded four-panel door and a chamfered crossbeam over the lower side partition. On the first floor, there are three good late 17th or early 18th century fielded three-panel doors, a plank cupboard door with wrought iron hinges, but other doors are from the 19th century. The roof structure is softwood with collars halved, lapped, and pegged to straight principals with mortice-and-tenoned apexes and purlins resting on the backs of the principals; one collar is blackened.

The property includes a circa 19th-century slate rubble front garden area wall with a pitched slate capping, corner piers, and a pair of square gate piers in front of the doorway, with concrete caps and a 20th-century gate.