Ash House

Ash House is a country house dating from the early to mid-18th century, with additions from the early 19th century. The house is constructed of stuccoed walls with joint lining, set beneath a low-pitched hipped slate roof to the main block and a mansard slate roof to a rear wing. It features four axial rendered stacks. The plan incorporates three principal rooms in the front range; the central room serves as an entrance hall with a staircase behind in a projecting section, with offices to its right. To the left of the stairs, a kitchen and service wing extends to the rear, and an early 19th-century addition is set at the right-hand end.

The symmetrical front has seven bays, divided by pilasters with a pediment above the central bay. Early 19th-century or facsimile 12-pane sash windows are present on the first floor, each with a projecting keystone. Similar windows feature in the central bay on the ground floor. The outer two bays incorporate early to mid-19th-century semi-circular bays, each with three sash windows divided by fluted pilasters, topped with ball finials to flat roofs. A central stone ashlar Doric porch has angle pilasters and columns flanking a roundheaded doorway, with moulded imposts and a projecting keystone. The porch features a stone balustered parapet mirroring the roof parapet, which has lions holding armorial shields. A heraldic plaque is set within the pediment. A recessed, one-window front addition, dating from the early 19th century, extends from the right-hand end, featuring a bay window on the ground floor.

The rear elevation has a central hipped roof stair projection with a large Venetian window with marginal glazing bars. A large, three-storey service wing projects to the right, with a stone rubble courtyard wall extending from its left side across the rear of the house. The courtyard wall includes a central, pedimented gateway with a finial above and a segmental-headed doorway.

Inside, early 19th-century six-panel doors are present. The left-hand principal room has an early 19th-century marble chimney-piece, simple and probably contemporary panelling with a chair rail, a key pattern plaster frieze assumed to be original, a dentilled cornice, simple moulding to the ceiling edge with a circular design at the centre, and a low-relief ceiling rose. Pilastered doorcases are also present. The central room contains an original chimney-piece with a richly decorated frieze and consoles, alongside a geometric design plaster ceiling likely dating to the 19th century. The right-hand room features simple moulded panels with a chair rail, probably dating to the 19th century and restored in the 20th. An original panel above the fireplace has projecting corners with a shell motif at the centre and delicate trailing foliage, complemented by a contemporary chimney-piece with a shouldered architrave and a central floral design panel, and a plaster low-relief rib ceiling with bands of small circles. A dentilled cornice with egg and dart moulding completes the room. An open string staircase has moulded turned balusters and carved tread ends.