Birket Houses

House, now hotel. Built in 1909 to the design of Dan Gibson. The building is constructed of roughcast stone with stone dressings and slate roofs.

The house is planned in an L-shape with gabled cross wings at each end and single-storey ranges surrounding a kitchen court to the east. The south facade is the principal front, rising two storeys to an attic level across five bays. The first bay projects forward beneath a gable and contains a recessed loggia. The second bay forms a gabled re-entrant bay window. The fourth bay projects as a gabled two-storey porch.

Windows throughout are characterized by ovolo-mullioned frames with label moulds. Most contain king mullions and transoms, and feature leaded glazing with rectangular quarries. The verandah to the south has a dripcourse extending to three sides and is supported on four round piers. Two-light windows flank the main entrance, which has an architrave and key stone above, with a half-glazed door. Some windows include decorative grilles in certain panes. The second bay of the ground floor contains a 2+1+2-light window with three lights to the return; the third bay has a 2+2-light window, as does the fifth bay. The first floor of the second bay has a 2+1+2-light window with three lights to the return; the third bay has a 3+3-light window; the fourth bay has a 2+1+2-light window with two-light returns, above which is a three-light attic window with a label mould raised over an armorial bearing (Birket); the fifth bay has a 2+2-light window. The first bay contains the only first-floor window with a transom.

The porch features a false four-centred arch with a label mould inscribed with the initials "MBH" and the date "1908". The inner door is a nine-panel example with an ornate handle. An extruded stack with setoffs and rounded shafts rises in the angle to the left of the porch. The building retains dated lead rainwater heads and downpipes, and a wall gutter with cresting. A small cross-axial stack is also present.

The left return consists of four bays. The second bay projects beneath a gable, while the third bay breaks forward and contains a lateral stack with setoffs and rounded shaft to the left. Windows follow the patterns described above, with 2+2-light windows to the first and second bays, 2+1+2-light windows with two-light returns to the second bay, and a three-light window to the first floor of the fourth bay. Ground-floor windows include transoms.

The north facade comprises four bays with a two-bay return to the left. The first, second, and fourth bays are gabled; the first, third, and fourth bays project to varying degrees. The ground floor contains 3:2+2:2 windows (with two transoms) and 2+2-light windows; the first floor has 2+3+2-light and 2+2-light windows; two- and three-light windows light the gables of the first and second bays and a concealed gable to the right of the third bay. A re-entrant lean-to porch with a stack above and rounded shaft is present, as is a large stack in the valley between the third and fourth bays. The return includes a projecting gabled first bay, which sweeps down to the right. Windows here have dripstones and timber mullioned and transomed frames. A cross-axial stack with round shafts is also present.

The east facade comprises four gabled bays. The first bay has 2+2-light stone-mullioned windows; other windows are wood-mullioned. A re-entrant lean-to porch and low service ranges with wood-mullioned windows are present; one window to the end of the north range has a dated grille in one pane. The south range features wrestler slates and a lean-to projection containing a garden seat with flanking niches to the south.

The interior was not inspected during the survey, but is reported to retain original fittings including plasterwork, doors, light fittings, and built-in furniture, as well as an integral heating system. Some panelling is believed to date from the 16th century and to derive from a former house on the site.

The garden was designed by Thomas Mawson and is documented in Country Life, 13 April 1912.