Orchard House

ORCHARD HOUSE

A house remodelled in the late 18th or early 19th century, with subsequent alterations. The building was probably originally a lobby entry house with a single bay cottage attached to the right (east), but has been reconfigured so that the eastern front door now provides direct entry to the central room, with enclosed stairs rising from its rear.

MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION

The south front is built of dressed coursed masonry, while the rear and sides are of coursed rubble, all showing evidence of former lime finish coatings. The roofing has been replaced and the chimney stacks are rendered.

EXTERIOR

The south front is the principal elevation, presenting three bays and two storeys with a single-bay addition of corresponding height to the east. An ashlar plinth runs across the front, with raised quoins displaying chamfered rustication. The two doorways are set beneath monolithic lintels carved with raised detail imitating voussoirs, supported on impost blocks that are wider than the monolithic jambs below. The projecting portions of these blocks are tooled to match the wall stone, providing keying for a lime finish coat. The upper halves of the window lintels are similarly tooled. The window openings are proportioned to receive 19th-century vertical sliding sash windows, but at inspection contained replaced Yorkshire horizontal sliding sashes, each with eight panes. The central first-floor window is wider than the others, comprising three sashes, and has a replaced lintel of non-matching stone. The gables are coped, and three chimneys rise at the ridge line, positioned at the two bay divisions and the west gable. The single-storey scullery to the east is detailed in keeping with the rest of the frontage.

The north rear elevation is roughly quoined and largely blank. A single enlarged window lights the ground floor at the east end. Three windows serve the upper floor, with that to the east being a later insertion. The roughly central window is round-arched with an ashlar stone surround featuring a raised keystone and impost blocks. Its joinery is partially altered, the lower sash clearly being replaced. To the west stands a former two-light straight-chamfered mullioned window that has lost its mullion to accommodate a Yorkshire sliding sash. The single-storey eastern addition has a doorway with large quoined jambs and a monolithic lintel.

The east gable contains a large blocked opening at first-floor level, now partly obscured by the scullery roof line; this may have been a former taking-in doorway rather than a window. Above it sits a small attic window with a projecting lintel.

The west gable is otherwise blank except for an inserted ground-floor window.

INTERIOR

Ground floor: The central room contains a boxed-in spine beam. Its west wall features a fireplace flanked by recessed cupboards, with a reproduction surround and grate. The deep reveal of the doorway through to the western room is interpreted as the former lobby serving the now-blocked western front door, though no internal evidence of the original door remains. The western room, spanned by two boxed-in beams, has a fireplace with a reproduction hob grate and early 19th-century-style timber surround. To the east of the current front door lies the kitchen, which retains a large fireplace for a cooking range. A chamfered spine beam with run-out stops only at the fireplace end spans the ceiling. The scullery in the eastern addition features iron hooks to the ceiling.

First floor: First-floor doors are typically four-panelled, hung on H-L hinges. The central room functions as a formal reception space with decorative cornicing that incorporates the boxed-in beam dividing the ceiling; the cornicing differs between the two sections. Its west wall displays an ornate fitted cupboard beside a fireplace with surround and hob grate, appearing to be 18th-century work, though the surround and cupboard are slightly oversized for their present positions, suggesting reuse from elsewhere as part of the circa 1800 remodelling. The western bay is subdivided into two bedrooms; the southern retains a fireplace with hob grate and surround, while both expose roughly chamfered beams in the ceiling. The eastern bay has altered partitions.

Roof space: The chimney flues are brick-built. The roof structure probably dates largely to the circa 1800 remodelling, reusing substantial earlier timbers (bearing redundant housings and peg holes) for purlins, wall plates and some rafters. The common rafters and some other elements are later sawn timbers.

A single-storey scullery was added to the east end in the early 19th century.

OUTBUILDING RANGE AND BOUNDARY FEATURES

To the north of the house stands a single-storey outbuilding range of coursed rubble with substantial dressed quoins, roofed in pantiles. The range comprises two units. The western unit has doorways to both north and south, both with substantial lintels and quoined jambs, the northern also having a small window. The eastern unit has a low doorway (possibly for pigs) and a higher opening with quoined jambs (possibly for hens) on the south side, with a window on the north. Both gables are blind and plain-verged.

A stone-built boundary wall extends from the east gable of the outbuilding around the south side of the house, incorporating two pedestrian gateways.