Ferney Hill

Ferney Hill is a former large country house, now used as a local authority residential home. It was built between 1767 and 1768 by Anthony Keck. The house is constructed of limestone ashlar, with painted brick, rendered chimneys, and tile roofs to the front range and stone slate to the rear wing. It is two storeys with an attic to the central block, and two storeys to the wings at each end. A large three-storey wing to the rear creates an L-shaped layout. A long, curved corridor links to the main entrance on a lower level at the west end. Former stables and a coach house are located to the rear.

The front façade has a three-window arrangement to the centre. Tall, fifteen-pane ground floor sash windows are flanked by a central doorway with a moulded architrave and dentil cornice supported on console brackets, leading to double twentieth-century glazed doors approached by semi-circular steps. A Regency ironwork canopy shelters the front, running between the wings. Upper floor windows are twelve-pane sashes, and attic windows are six-pane casements. A modillion cornice run below the attic windows extends to become a parapet cornice on the octagonal-ended projecting wings, with a blocking course above; plain banding is also continuous. The wings have a single sash window on each face of their octagonal ends.

The west side features brickwork with a stone modillion cornice and banding extending from the front. The fenestration consists of sashes, one of which is blocked. The curved corridor wing, built on a gradient, has round-arched windows in random rubble side walls and terminates in a south-facing ashlar façade that includes a doorway pediment, attached Tuscan columns, a modillion cornice, and a blocking course above; it has a six-panel door. The east side is similar to the west, but with rendered brickwork. A twentieth-century extension is not of special architectural interest.

The rear features a tall round-arched staircase sash, and a mixed arrangement of sash windows, all with timber lintels. Inside, the end of the former dining room contains an Ionic arcade (distyle in antis) with an apse behind, along with dentil enriched ceiling cornices and an elaborate Adam-style fireplace. A simple staircase has stick balusters. A fitted cupboard on the upper floor, featuring a bold scrolled pediment, is an incongruous feature and should be preserved. Many interior partitions were added during a mid-twentieth-century conversion to a residential home.