Spencer Cottage Spencer House

MELSONBY WEST ROAD NZ 1808-1908 (south side)

12/174 No 37 (Spencer House) and Spencer Cottage 4.2.69 - II

2 houses, now 1, and attached stable with loft, now incorporated into house, and cottage. Mid-late C18, with early-mid C19 and C20 additions. Coursed sandstone, pantile roof. U-shaped plan, with main range and two rear ranges. 2 storeys, 6 bays, the first having been added in 1908, and the next two in the early-mid C19, although the overall impression is of a unified design. Quoins at ends, between first and second, and third and fourth bays. In fourth bay, a 6-panel door in ashlar architrave with bases, pulvinated frieze and cornice. Blocked door, now window, on ground floor in second bay. Sash windows with glazing bars, with ashlar projecting sills and deep lintels in first bay, and with architraves in other bays. Brick stepped eaves. Shaped kneelers, ashlar copings. Rebuilt brick stacks at ends and between third and fourth bays. Rear: plain ashlar surrounds to openings. Left return: C20 metal framed casement windows. Former stable, now part of house, to rear left, linked by C20 flat-roofed linking block (not of special interest) has quoins, and from left, board door, paired part-glazed doors, C20 window, raised verges with reversed crowstepping, and on left return, external stone steps up to board door to loft. Interior: in ground-floor room to far right, fielded panel doors and shutters, panelling and egg-and-dart motif cornice; staircase with column-on-vase balusters, the alternate balusters removed; in first-floor room to far right, fielded panelling and dentil cornice. Set into the architrave of the front door to left and right are cast-iron bell-pushes, one marked 'NIGHT' and the other 'VISITORS', which survive from the period in the C19 when the house was occupied by a doctor.

Listing NGR: NZ1967708458