Leawood House

Leawood House is a manor house with a complex building history spanning from the early 17th century to the Edwardian period. The structure comprises rendered rubble walls beneath a hipped slate roof to the front block and gabled roofs to the rear wings. Multiple later 19th-century rendered brick stacks with moulded caps punctuate the roofline, mostly positioned axially. The plan extends around three sides of a courtyard, with a double-depth front block as the dominant feature.

The earliest section, dating to around the early 17th century, survives in the rear portion of the front block and the right-hand rear wing. The front range of this original section appears to have contained a through-passage, with what was probably a kitchen to its left. The hall may have occupied the right side, though this section and the rear wing have undergone heavy remodelling.

Around the late 17th or early 18th century, a good-quality parlour was added to the rear of the left-hand end, creating an additional small wing opposite the right-hand wing. At roughly the same time or slightly later, a parallel front range was constructed, establishing the new façade and reducing the original front block to service purposes.

The late 18th century brought external remodelling and gothicization of the house. The Victorian era saw the front range remodelled into its present form, comprising two large rooms divided by a substantial stairhall. The gothic fenestration and doorway were replaced during this period. The rear left-hand wing was possibly extended with additional service rooms at this time. In the Edwardian period, a single-storey range was built at the rear of the courtyard, functioning as a gun-room and billiard room, probably replacing an earlier structure.

The front elevation displays two storeys with an attic. A symmetrical four-window front features a central bay projecting slightly forward. The first floor has twentieth-century sash windows: the outer pair are three-light and the inner pair are two-light. The ground floor contains two canted bay windows with hipped roofs. First-floor windows are topped with hoodmoulds from the original late 18th-century gothic fenestration. A central nineteenth-century pedimented porch with four square pillars at the front and a dentilled cornice marks the entrance; modern glazed doors and side-lights have replaced earlier elements.

Both rear wings project outward to either side of the front block, creating equal-length flanking sections. These and the central portion display regular fenestration comprising late 18th-century two-light casements with arched heads and gothic intersecting glazing bars. The left-hand wing features a seventeenth-century four-centred arched chamfered granite doorway with a modern plank door at its centre. The central rear elevation contains a nineteenth-century part-glazed door left of centre. To the right of centre is the original rear passage doorway, distinguished by a four-centred granite arch with rich moulding terminating in incised scroll stops and an arched hoodmould above; a contemporary studded plank door hangs here. In front of this sits a nineteenth-century flat granite doorhood supported on granite columns. The right-hand wing displays a nineteenth-century reproduction granite arched doorway right of centre.

The Edwardian single-storey rear courtyard range connects to the right-hand wing via a seventeenth-century granite arched doorway. A matching granite doorway stands opposite on the far side of the courtyard. In front of this is a contemporary open-fronted gabled porch, slate-hung at the front and supported on two granite columns with moulded caps and bases. At the end of the adjoining rear wing stands another seventeenth-century granite four-centred arched doorway connecting to the garden wall.

Interior features include a segmental-headed chamfered granite doorway in the passage of the central early block, leading to the kitchen. The kitchen contains a granite-framed fireplace with a straight lintel and hollow chamfer. The room behind features late seventeenth or early eighteenth-century bolection-moulded panelling with an incorporated fireplace; a contemporary painting of a classical scene fills the panel above the fireplace. The front range contains Victorian chimney pieces and staircase work.

A photograph reputedly from the 1860s shows the façade as it then appeared: with gothic pointed-arched windows and doorway, a castellated parapet, and the central bay gabled. The house occupies an unspoilt eighteenth-century park setting.