Start House Including Gate Piers Adjoining North East

Start House, including gate piers adjoining north east

A house, probably an early 19th-century remodelling of an earlier building, with late 19th-century alterations. The structure is built of stone rubble, stuccoed at the front and sides, with an asbestos tile roof featuring coped gable ends. The gable end stacks and large central axial stack behind the ridge are rendered, all fitted with louvred clay pots.

The original plan is likely a 3-room house with through passage. The lower right-hand end room and inner left-hand end room are heated from gable end stacks, whilst the central room (originally probably the hall) was heated from what was initially a rear lateral stack. In the early 18th century, a new rear wall was constructed to accommodate rear service rooms and a stairwell behind the former hall. In the late 19th century, a single-storey outshut was built across the back with an entrance lobby at the centre, positioned behind the stairs to provide direct access from the road. The main remodelling included the addition of a verandah across the front and a single-storey outshut at the right-hand end.

The building stands two storeys with attic accommodation. The south front is symmetrical with five windows. The five original first-floor sashes have been replaced with 20th-century plastic windows, though the moulded frames have been retained. On the ground floor, a bowed window at the centre contains original 4:12:4 pane bowed sashes. To the left are two 19th-century French casements with margin panes, to the right a 20th-century French casement, and to the right of centre a round-headed doorway in a moulded architrave with pilasters, semi-circular fanlight with curved glazing bars, and glazed door. The ground floor is enclosed behind a verandah with a tent-shaped asbestos tile hipped roof, moulded cast-iron eaves gutter featuring lion-head masks and pierced spandrels (these were originally pierced piers). The verandah has been glazed, probably in the late 19th century, with each bay containing 15 large panes. Two 20th-century gabled dormers sit at the front.

The rear north elevation features plastic first-floor windows to right and left of a large 19th-century stair window with margin panes. The ground floor has a continuous outshut with asbestos tile lean-to and 20th-century metal-frame windows. At the centre of the outshut is a doorway with a rendered portal with console brackets beneath the coping, fitted with a 19th-century panelled door. Set back on the left is a single-storey outshut with a pair of tall rendered gate piers on the corner, topped with ball finials.

Interior: Most original joinery survives, including panelled doors. The front entrance room features a moulded plaster cornice and light rose with acanthus leaves, and a later Adam-style chimneypiece. The front left-hand room has a good moulded plaster cornice with triglyph and a mid-19th-century marble chimneypiece with console brackets. The front right-hand room contains a large open fireplace with an 18th-century mantel-shelf featuring dentilled cornice. The open-string staircase has scroll decoration to the tread ends, stick balusters, and a moulded pine handrail wreathed over a column newel post. The first floor was not inspected but is reported to retain 19th-century chimneypieces. Apart from the plan, the earliest apparent internal feature is the 18th-century mantel-shelf in the front right-hand room.