Dairy House And Attached Walls And Railings

This is a late 17th and early 18th century dairy house, altered around 1820. It is constructed from limestone rubble with a Ham Hill stone plinth and dressings, and has a slate roof with brick stacks at the centre and north end, although one stack on the east gable end has been truncated. The building is L-shaped, with its main entrance on the rear elevation. The front facade, facing the garden, is a three-window range, with a single window to the right wall and two to the left. Some of the older windows retain chamfered stone mullions and label moulds. A wing to the west is believed to have been rebuilt in 1820, with associated window repositioning. Single-storey canted bays have been added to the north and south ends of the main building, and the east wall of the main block was raised in the 18th century, reusing existing windows. There is a planked-and-studded door, under a flat stone porch supported on brackets, to the left of the west wing. The windows here are 3-light to the first floor and 4-light below. A door to the rear of the west wing, adjoining the main block and potentially repositioned, has a Tudor-arched stone lintel and a flat, slabbed porch. The right return elevation, facing Hermitage Street, is elevated above the road, featuring two 2-light stone-mullioned windows in a gable end and a small 19th-century plate-glass sash window near the gutter.

The room to the north of the interior has an open fireplace with an oak lintel. Evidence of a spiral staircase is found on the upper floor, indicated by a concave wall. The room contains two stopped chamfered cross-beams. The left wing and the rear, south-facing room of the main block have a stone-flagged floor, with the latter also featuring a single cross-beam and elliptical arches flanking the fireplace on the east wall. The attic has collar trusses with diagonal ridge details; some lower purlins have been removed. Principal rafters remain on the east wall, alongside later, 18th or early 19th century rafters running to the wall plate.

The garden to the north-west has a low rubble stone wall with Ham Hill stone coping and spearhead railings, including a tall gate. Close to the house, the wall rises to the height of the railings and then sweeps up to meet the building.