The Vache

The Vache is a large house, now serving as the National Coal Board Staff College, with a complex history of construction and alteration spanning from the 15th or early 16th century to the early 20th century, and subsequent changes in 1955 and later. The building is primarily brick, with some exposed timber framing, and roofs covered in plain tiles and slate. Brick stacks feature multiple diagonally-set flues.

The house's layout centres around an infill courtyard. The earliest section is the southern part of the east wing, extended slightly in the late 16th century. The west wing is also likely from the late 16th century, while the north range was built in the late 17th century, and the south range in the early to mid-18th century. The courtyard itself was enclosed in the late 19th century, and further additions were made to the west wing in 1955.

The north front has five to three bays and incorporates some 17th-century brickwork. The ends of the east and west ranges project with gabled two-storey canted bay windows. A two-storey gabled central porch provides access. Dormers are present in the roof. The east front, with six bays, shows exposed timber framing of tight-scantling, a plinth, a truncated external stack between the left bays, and a broad external stack between the right bays, featuring two Tudor-arched niches at the base and tripled flues. The south front, from the 18th century, has five bays with slightly projecting gabled end bays and Venetian windows. A pedimented doorcase marks the central entrance, with architraved windows and cornices above the ground-floor ones. A moulded eaves cornice and parapet complete the elevation. The west front displays some 16th-century brickwork, including a central projection with an embattled parapet, exhibiting roll-moulded embrasures and merlons, which was later heightened.

The interior largely dates to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, featuring a fine, top-lit, galleried central hall, as well as a panelled entrance hall and drawing room. The Music Room contains some reused panelling. Surviving earlier features include 17th-century moulded stone fireplaces in the east range on both ground and first floors, 18th-century panelling in a room to the east of the entrance and a room above it, and some timber framing in the west range and at the north end of the earliest east range. This area contains a post and curved brace, with a wide entrance featuring a hollow-moulded four-centred-arched surround. A late 17th-century staircase is present in the north range at the west end, with original turned balusters leading to the attic.

Notable roof structures are found above the east and west wings. The east wing's roof has a three-bay crown-post roof, the northern bay being shorter, with large-scantling crown posts, square on plan, with stop-chamfered arises and chamfered arch braces to a chamfered collar purlin, and close-set collared rafters. The adjacent bays have a king-post truss with curved struts, the king-post having hollow-chamfered arises with half-pyramidal stops. The west wing’s roof features trusses with curved struts, some originally including an upright post, collars, trenched purlins, and chamfered arched wind-braces.