Watermoor House

Watermoor House, now an old people’s home, was built in 1827 by William Jay for Joseph Mullings. The house is constructed of limestone ashlar, with coursed squared limestone to the sides and rear, and has Welsh slate hipped roofs to the main range, left side and rear ranges. The main range is in a Greek Revival style and has a later 19th-century addition to the right side, along with large rear and left-side ranges from the later 19th century.

The front elevation is a two-storey, three-window range. The first floor has three 6/6-pane sash windows with stone sills, while the ground floor has late 19th-century single-storey projections flanking a central porch. The porch contains a pair of 8-panel doors with a decorative overlight, supported by a pair of Greek Doric columns in antis, with a full entablature featuring a wreath decoration to the frieze. The flanking projections also have friezes, moulded cornices, and blocking courses. There is a set-back to the right side and a coped parapet with no eaves cornice.

The south elevation of the main range exhibits four 6/6-pane sash windows to the first floor; one is now adapted as a fire escape door. The corners are set back, with a shallow break forward to the centre, featuring three heavy pilaster strips supporting a coped parapet without an eaves cornice. A late 19th-century single-storey addition extends to the right, consisting of a two-bay open Roman Doric colonnade in antis with a full entablature. The colonnade is followed by five bays with applied Roman Doric pilasters, each containing a 6/6-pane horned sash, with the bay next to the right end broken forward with four Doric columns supporting an open pediment, framing two narrow 6/6-pane sashes flanking a broader sash to the centre.

The rear elevation is single-storey to the left, with 20th-century alterations and a projecting single-storey central feature dating from the late 19th or early 20th century, built in a Baroque style with a blind Venetian window, swagged frieze, modillion cornice, and segmental pediment. A later 19th-century wing, set back to the left of the main range, is a large three-storey double pile, featuring sash windows, band courses to each floor, and deep eaves.

The interior of the main range includes a cantilevered stone well staircase with a moulded soffit, a wreathed iron balustrade, and a mahogany grip handrail. A stone-paved hall has slate dots; 8-panel mahogany doors, potentially all late 19th century, are in the hall. Early 19th-century architraves with rosette decoration frame the doors to the hall. Run cornices are present in the hall and the rear and centre-left areas of the main range. Matching early 19th-century marble fireplaces are located in the rear centre and rear left of the main range. A dog-leg stick-baluster back staircase with shaped cheek-pieces is also present.