Preston Court

Preston Court is a large country house of late 16th-century or very early 17th-century date, altered in the early 18th century, early 19th century, and mid-20th century. It is constructed of brick-nogged or rendered panel timber framing on a stone plinth, with the right return built in painted Flemish bond brickwork. The roof is tiled, with stone slates to the rear. The building is three storeys high, with a six-bay front elevation, one room deep, arranged in a large 'U' plan.

The front elevation features windows with mullion and transom except where otherwise stated. The left portion of the framing consists of two panels high on the ground floor and three panels high on the first floor, the latter being square. The porch is close studded with two panels high per floor. To the right of the porch are heavy main posts with heavy studs adjoining them with downward braces to the bressumer. The first floor has thin close studding between both floors, arranged in two panels high. The second floor has larger panels below the windows, with close studding between the windows to the right and to the gables.

On the ground floor, the left side has a six-light window with reserved cyma chamfer, and a main post in the angle against the porch, rising two storeys. The porch projects from the third bay and has a wide flat-headed opening with ovolo moulding. A pilaster on each side supports consoles holding up the jetty to the front only, with double ovolo moulding to the jetty beam and ball pendants from corner posts at the ends. To the right are six-light and four-light windows, with mid-20th-century framing beneath and a projecting end to the brick return on the right.

The first floor has a five-light reserved cyma chamfer window with a console on each side supporting the jetty above. A three-light window in the porch gable has carved bargeboards and a timber finial to the apex. To the right is an original five-light window on the left and a four-light on the right, with the end projecting to the brick return on the right and consoles supporting a shallow jetty above.

The second floor features six gables, each with a four-light casement window beneath, carved bargeboards, and a timber finial to the apex. The left two gables are narrower than those to the right, with wider studs and a tie beam only, whilst the right gables have thinner studs, a collar, and a tie beam. A chimney on the ridge, right of centre, has six diamond-set brick flues with brick bridging between the tops.

The right return is constructed of brick with four two-light windows per floor. Elliptical brick arches surmount the windows except on the second floor, which has flat brick heads. A half-glazed door between the first and second windows from the left on the ground floor has plain timber pilasters and a semi-circular head with timber pediment above. A plain brick string course runs to each floor, with a dentil eaves course.

The left return is timber framed and close studded, with two panels high on the ground floor and three panels between windows on the first floor, and two square panels high on the front of the second floor. The ground floor has a three-light window on the right (a mid-20th-century enlargement of an earlier opening), a four-light window to the left, a small two-light window, and a three-light window at the left end, with weatherboard to the first floor bressumer. Above, on the right, is a blocked four-light casement window, and to the left a four-light casement, two slit windows between studs, and a two-light window on the left (probably originally three, with the right-hand light now blocked). A slight jetty to the second floor has a separate head and bressumer, the latter with ovolo moulding to the bottom edge.

Eaves to the front gable on the right have straight braces from the post to the collar and wallplate, with a small gable above. The left slope extends down just above floor level. Further eaves include a gabled wall on the left with braces to the tie beam, and a three-light casement (two lights blocked since before 1928), with 'V' struts above the collar. To the right is a brick chimney base with six diamond-set brick flues and bridging between the caps. The rear flues rise out of the roof slope where the base is set lower down. In the rear courtyard, a square projection for stairs on the right has lean-to roofs on adjoining sides. A large external stone chimney base on the left has three brick flues like the other chimneys.

The interior contains a main wall on the left behind the porch, with a separate open main frame against it in the left room for the full height of the building. The main ceiling beams have a heavy chamfer. A newel stair is present. The left front room has a stone arch to the fireplace with a wide fireplace behind and a chamfered elliptical stone lintel. The small front right room has dust-ledge panelling in small panels with a strapwork frieze over dentils and a moulded cornice. The fireplace is flanked by fluted Ionic pilasters with two semi-circular headed panels over, flanked by terms, and a six-panel door. The first floor has chamfered flat stone lintels to fireplaces on the left and centre front. The second floor features a hanging cheese rack in the centre front and a timber crane, now loose in the left front room, whose original location is unclear. Two pairs of butt purlins run to the rear slope front, with a square ridge.

The building was constructed in two stages, with the left wing and two front bays separately framed from the right-hand part. The flues rising out of the roof slope on the left suggest a change of plan, possibly during construction. The front elevation was completely rendered over at some stage, certainly by the late 18th or early 19th century. This render was removed after 1928, when a sash window on the ground floor right was replaced to match others in the façade.

Preston Court forms a group with the church. Photographs are held at the National Monuments Record from 1928.