The Downes House

The Downes House is a farmhouse, later adapted as a house, dating from around 1850. It is constructed of coursed slatestone rubble with a hipped slate roof, deep eaves, and stone ridge and end stacks. The building follows a double-depth plan and is in a Late Georgian style.

The house is two storeys high and symmetrical, with a three-window front. A portico with Tuscan columns supports an entablature topped with a classical balustrade, and contains half-glazed double doors set in a moulded wood architrave. Twelve-pane sashes are set in stuccoed and beaded architraves, and these sashes also have pelmet boards decorated with Gothic-style cusping and quatrefoils. The side walls, each of three bays, also feature some twelve-pane sashes. A round-arched stair-light with a tall sash window is located to the rear. A service wing extends to the rear left and has sashes on its left side wall.

Inside, original mid-19th century panelled doors remain. A central, full-depth hall contains a dog-leg staircase with stick balusters and a wreathed handrail. Mid-19th century fireplaces are present throughout the house; notably, a room to the right of the hall features an Adam-style fireplace and matching plasterwork. The house appears on the 1842 Tithe Map and was rebuilt in 1857 for George Cooper, the land agent for the Pine-Coffin family estate, according to the 1857 Billings Directory.