Ashleigh House

Ashleigh House is a house dating from the late 18th century, likely a remodelling of an earlier building. It is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond, with lighter-coloured headers. The roof is slate, with coped gable ends and a brick cogged eaves cornice; the back pitch has been reclad in concrete tiles. A brick gable end stack is present. The house has a 2-room plan main range with a central entrance, the right-hand room heated by a rear lateral stack and the left by a gable end stack. A long service wing serves as a kitchen and is located behind the left end of the main building. The south front is symmetrical, featuring three windows. Original window openings have flat stone keyed arches and stone sills, now largely fitted with 20th-century casements, except for a large round headed stair window at the centre with a keyed round arch and a 18-pane sash window with intersecting glazing bars at the top. A 20th-century panelled door is set within a reconstructed stone arch with a new canopy. The right-hand gable end has an original 12-pane sash window in a similar opening to those on the front. The left-hand end features casements, and a two-story rear wing extends to the left.

The interior of the right-hand room has a high ceiling supported by chamfered cross-beams with convex tops and a large fireplace at the back with a new wooden lintel. The left-hand room features panelled walls at the left end, including giant fluted pilasters framing a chimneypiece with lush garlands, a panel in the frieze depicting a shepherdess, a dentil cornice, and a fielded panel overmantel. Flanking the chimney are small, decorative drops and large, round-headed china cupboards with shaped shelves and moulded architraves with keyblocks; a moulded cornice runs over the panelling. A good oak open-well staircase with open stringing runs from the ground to the second floor, featuring stick balusters and a moulded handrail leading to column newels and a wreathed curtail.

The right-hand first-floor chamber has chamfered cross-beams with cyma stops and unchamfered exposed joists, along with an 18th-century moulded chimneypiece and fielded panel doors to two cupboards. The left-hand first-floor chamber features an Adam-style chimneypiece, an iron grate, and a fielded paneled cupboard to the left. Above the chimneypiece is a contemporary landscape painting directly applied to the wall, depicting two ladies on the left, one weeping, and two men duelling on the right, all in contemporary dress. The painting is framed with an oval revealed behind painted curtains. 18th-century panelled doors are found throughout the house, with an old plank door on the second floor.