St Martins House And Screen Walls

This is an early 18th-century house, possibly incorporating a late 16th-century core. It is constructed of coursed sandstone with ashlar dressings, and has a concrete interlocking tile roof. The house is arranged over two storeys with a double-depth plan, and the rear range may be of earlier origin.

The front facade features a central portico with three-quarter Roman Doric columns, a Doric frieze, a cornice, and a pediment with inner, double doors having fielded panels, the uppermost panels bow-topped. Canted bay windows are positioned in the outer ground-floor bays, each featuring Doric three-quarter columns, a frieze, a cornice, and a stone roof. The first floor incorporates sash windows within architraves, with the central window elaborately eared and shouldered. A classical cornice runs along the top of the facade, surmounted by an ashlar parapet with moulded coping and corner and intermediate pedestals supporting ball finials. The roof is M-shaped, with moulded ashlar copings. There are corniced ashlar stacks at both ends, with the right-hand stack rebuilt.

To the left and right of the main house are single-storey screen walls, each containing a doorway with alternately raised quoins and a large tripartite keystone. The doorway on the left has a boarded door, while the doorway on the right is blocked. The rear of the house is partially obscured by a 20th-century single-storey extension. It has chamfered rusticated quoins and features 2-light casement windows in ashlar surrounds. A central Venetian staircase window is present, with Tuscan capitals and a tripartite keystone to the central light. There are added brick eaves stacks and a rebuilt corniced ashlar stack to the right. Ashlar copings with ball finials are situated at the kneelers. The left return displays a single first-floor and two attic windows in ashlar surrounds, while the right return has one attic window that is now blocked.

The interior features a ground-floor room to the front left with fluted pilasters and a Doric frieze within the bay window, a six-panelled door with matching casing, and a cornice. The ground-floor room to the front right has similar fluted pilasters and a pulvinated frieze, with matching doors and a panelled dado to cupboards flanking a replaced fireplace. An early 18th-century staircase has balusters turned with vase and gadroon motifs. A cupboard in the staircase hall has a six-panelled door with bow-topped upper panels and a fanlight above with ogee glazing bars. The interior of the Venetian staircase window displays Tuscan pilasters and a dentil cornice over the side lights.

Historically, following the Dissolution of St Martin's Priory, the property was owned by the Pepper family, who included two Recorders and two Members of Parliament. They were subsequently succeeded by the Theakston family in the 18th century and the Jaques family in the 19th century.