Roughwood Farmhouse

Roughwood Farmhouse is a late-19th-century farmhouse with a wing added in 1902, probably by the architect CFA Voysey, for Captain Williams, together with further late-19th and 20th-century additions and alterations.

The main structure is built of red brick laid in Flemish bond with stone dressings and a slate roof. The 1902 addition features roughcast and colourwashed brick walls with a slate roof. The building is two storeys with a basement; the northern wing has a lower ridge line.

The entrance front faces south with three symmetrically disposed bays. A projecting brick plinth and stone band at first-floor window-sill level run across the façade and along the flanks. At the centre is a projecting porch wing with a half-hipped roof. The porch has an arched entrance with a prominent keystone at ground level, now fitted with later panelled double doors and a fanlight, flanked by arched windows. Above is a four-pane sash window at first-floor level. The flanking bays contain similar sashes on both floors.

To the right, the Voysey wing is set back. It has low eaves at ground-floor level on its left and a canted bay window to the right, rising through both storeys and turning the corner to meet a tapered chimney stack on the eastern side of the wing. Ground-floor windows are taller with wooden mullions, transoms and leaded casements. First-floor casements are divided by mullions. A low parapet above the first-floor windows ramps up to meet the stack.

The eastern flank of the house has the stack at centre with the canted bay to its left and a recessed bay with a ground-floor doorway (containing a 20th-century glazed door) and a leaded casement at first-floor level. The north side of the wing has blind roughcast walling to the left with evidence of original lime-wash, and narrow casement lights to both floors at the far right; the first-floor casement is set in a dormer with lead cladding to its eastern flank.

The eastern side of the earlier house, right of the Voysey wing, has brick walling with a projecting stack and four-pane sashes to ground and first floors.

The western side has a two-storey canted bay window set beneath a half-hipped gable at the right. To its left is a doorway flanked by slender sashes, with a tall staircase window above, causing the stone sill band to dip. Further left is a single ground-floor bay with a triplet of small sashes at first-floor level. At the far left is a recessed addition with a garage door. The first-floor walling in brown brick represents a further addition, probably of 20th-century date.

The north front has an added 20th-century portion at the right with a jettied first floor supported by a central pillar and lateral brackets. To its left is an original portion with stone sill band, half-hipped gable and varied fenestration.

Internally, the porch leads to a staircase hall with panelled double doors to the west-side reception room. To the east, the original doorway has been replaced by a semi-circular archway flanked by thin pilasters supporting a deep cyma-moulded cornice, apparently of the 1902 period, creating a living hall. The Voysey wing opens from the eastern end of this reception room. Three ground-floor rooms in the older part retain original marble fire surrounds. The staircase has an open well, turned balusters, closed string and square-section newels with chamfered corners. Mid-19th-century joinery includes window shutters; several sash windows retain original glass. First-floor bedrooms have original fitted cupboards but original fire surrounds have been removed.

The ground-floor reception room of Voysey's wing has a fire surround with cyma moulding below its shelf. Casements to the bay window retain original metal handles and fastenings, though the fitted wooden benches below have been replaced. The north-western corner appears adapted to create a larder entered from the kitchen. At first-floor level, the fire surround has been removed but a grille in a distinctive pattern often used by Voysey, illustrated in The British Architect as his own design, remains in the upper chimney breast. Casements retain original metal fastenings; fitted window seats have been removed. A short staircase with characteristic stick balusters and moulded hardwood handrail connects the differing levels between main house and wing. Doors to rooms and cupboards are two-panelled with heart-shaped lock plates.

Pursuant to section 1(5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, it is declared that Roughwood Cottage and the connected stable block, standing to the north of Roughwood Farmhouse, are not of special architectural or historic interest.