House And Wall To Front Garden, At Hownhall

This is a farmhouse and wall to the front garden at Hownhall, dating from the early 18th century. It features English bond brickwork, a plain brick plinth, and a slate roof with lead hips and ridge. The building is two storeys high with attics and has a lower extension on the right. The façade is five windows wide and one room deep.

Access is via a ten-panel front door, which is reached by two stone steps and has a semi-circular bottom. Above the door is a flat, projecting timber hood with a moulded edge. On either side of the door are two tall, 18-pane sash windows with moulded sills and flat rubbed-brick arches above; the right window has wide glazing bars. There are cambered heads to the cellar openings below. A plain brick string course runs above the ground floor windows, and the first floor features five narrow glazing bar windows. The eaves are flat and wide.

In the centre of the roof is a two-light casement window in a lean-to dormer, with the roof hipped on the left. There is a similar dormer on the left return, and a panelled brick chimney rises from the eaves in the centre. The right side of the roof is gabled with a plain brick chimney on the ridge. The rear of the roof has three gables, with the left gable projecting slightly.

The garden wall in front of the house has square corner piers and central gateposts, with a rounded top to the plinth of the piers and a moulded edge to the stone capping. The gateway, which is reached by two stone steps, has had its gates removed. There are brick nibs in the piers on each side with a scroll top and stone hinge blocks. The stone coping on the walls has a moulded outer edge that sweeps up to the piers and the house, ending in a scroll. To the right of the gateway is a mounting block with five stone steps.

Inside, the front door has original L-hinges, and the front windows have panelled shutters. The entrance hall and adjoining rooms feature a moulded plaster cornice. The staircase has a wreath to the handrail that sweeps up to the landings, with three turned balusters per tread and panelled ends to each. There is a single fielded panel in the spandrel below the bottom flight, and the soffit of the flight above is panelled. Dado panelling matches the handrail, and there is a tall, semi-circular headed window in the staircase. The farmhouse forms a group with the nearby farm buildings.