Ninnage Lodge and clock house, with associated walls, railings, gate piers and gates

Ninnage Lodge and Clock House

An early 19th-century house that was enlarged during the mid to late 19th century, with an attached clock house of the same later period. The property includes associated garden walls, railings, gate piers and gates, with alterations and additions continuing through the 20th and 21st centuries.

The main building is constructed of brick with stone dressings and a slate tile roof. The clock tower is roofed with alternate bands of plain and scallop-shaped clay tiles. Most windows are timber-framed hornless sashes, though some are casements, and later additions include double-glazed uPVC windows.

The house is two storeys with a narrow cellar and is arranged on a double-pile plan, with rooms set around a central hall running the full width of the building. The clock house stands to the north-west.

The principal south-west elevation is built of brick in English garden wall bond, comprising four bays beneath a raised parapet above a stone cornice. Six-over-six sash windows on each floor have stone cills and stepped voussoir heads; the ground floor window to the third bay has a brick flat arch lintel. A late 20th-century rusticated stone porch with a six-panel door and geometric fanlight above stands at the second bay of the ground floor, flanked by pairs of columns. The window above has a dropped cill. Sweeping brick wing walls flank either side of the façade, each featuring a round-arched doorway with stone impost and keystone.

The two-storey clock house is built of brick in Flemish bond with a steeply pitched roof. Its principal elevation displays two phases of construction divided by a stone plat band. The ground-floor casement window appears to replace an earlier doorway. Two pointed Gothic-style stone windows with hood moulds occupy the first floor. Above these sits a clock within a moulded stone surround featuring a dropped arch head and hoodmould supported on corbels. A stepped wall to the left of the clock house forms part of a gateway, with a lean-to shelter on the north-west elevation.

The rear north-east elevation of the clock tower contains an inserted ground-floor casement window with concrete lintel, and a tall first-floor casement window with pointed head glazing bars. Above this window is a double row of stone wedge lintels with a diamond-shaped stone above. An external wrought-iron spiral staircase provides access to the first floor. An early 21st-century single-storey addition of brick in stretcher bond stands to the right, behind the wing wall.

The north-west elevation of the main house is largely blank except for inserted casement windows to the centre of each floor beneath segmental brick heads.

The rear north-east elevation, formerly considered the principal front, is rendered with a stone cornice and raised parapet. Stone steps lead to an off-centre six-panelled door with geometric fanlight above. To the right are two windows and to the left one window, all eight-over-eight sashes. The first floor has three six-over-six sash windows.

A late 20th-century glazed conservatory on a brick plinth occupies the south-east elevation, with two inserted windows above beneath segmental brick heads.

Internally, the entrance hall extends from south-west to north-east and features a panelled archway and a mid to late 19th-century open-string staircase with decorative brackets, a curtail step, wreathed handrail and turned balusters. Opposite stands a fitted display cupboard with glazed doors featuring pointed head glazing bars. Principal reception rooms retain panelled window shutters and plaster cornices. Fireplaces range from the Regency period to the 20th century. Six-panelled doors appear throughout. Front rooms have quarry tile floors, while the hall and principal rear rooms have parquet floors.

The clock tower's ground floor contains ancillary kitchen rooms, whilst the first floor retains the original clock mechanism.

The entrance gate piers are stone with ball finials. The driveway is lined with coursed stone walls with brick cappings. The section closer to the house comprises brick with stone copings surmounted by wrought iron railings. Pairs of wrought iron gates stand between the house and front garden, and between the farm building to the north-west and the clock house.