Dickhurst House

Dickhurst House is a large house dating to around 1900, likely designed around 1895 by C Harrison Townsend. It is notable for being mentioned in Hermann Muthesius' "Das Englishe Haus" of 1904-5. The house is built in the Vernacular Revival style, facing south over a valley and constructed with an open “V” or butterfly plan, comprising a main house to the east and a service wing, including a Billiard Room, to the west.

The south or garden front of the east wing is cement-rendered with timber framing, while the west wing has a brick ground floor and a tile-hung first floor. The tiled roof is punctuated by eight tall ribbed brick chimney stacks. The building is asymmetrical, with one or two storeys and nine windows. Most windows are mullioned or mullioned and transomed, with a particularly grand three-tier four-light window in the hall to the extreme east.

The east side elevation features a projecting chimney breast with two cambered windows, and the main entrance is framed by a brick and timber porch with a plank door. The north front has a one-storey alcove with a seat to the extreme east, followed by a one-storey corridor with a catslide roof. A two-storey staircase tower rises from the corridor, its ground floor built of brick and the first floor tile-hung with a canted bay featuring three-tier leaded lights. To the extreme west, a large tile-hung gable rises two storeys with attics, incorporating a large seven-light mullioned and transomed timber-framed canted bay to the ground-floor Billiard Room. A doorcase with plank door and side-light is located to the left.

The interior of the Billiard Room features a wooden fireplace with a copper hood and fenders, and retains an original painted frieze depicting irises. The Study has a built-in cupboard and a fireplace with paneling and a tiled surround. The Dining Room has dado panelling and a chimney breast with a tiled surround and alcoves. The Drawing Room contains a wooden fireplace with an iron basket-grate and a frieze depicting a panel showing a reclining youth and lion (possibly portraying Androcles and the lion or Heracles and the Nemean lion?), along with urns, brackets, and wheat ear drops. It also has a fine plastered frieze with a pattern of scrollwork and urns. The Hall, accessible via the Drawing Room or corridor, boasts sliding double doors, a large stone fireplace with an eared architrave, pilastered mantelpiece, cambered sidelights, panelling and a queenpost roof. The main staircase is of a dogleg design with splat balusters. Several original fireplaces remain on the first floor, including one with antique tiles and a cupboard above.