Thickthorn House With North Boundary Wall And Gateway

Thickthorn House is a detached house with possible origins in the 16th century, substantially remodelled in the late 17th century and possibly refronted in the 18th century. It sits alongside a north boundary wall and gateway. The house is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond on a rubble stone plinth, with ashlar dressings and a Welsh slate roof in diminishing courses between stepped coped gables. Brick chimney stacks rise from the roof. The house has a 'T'-plan with later additions.

The two-storey, three-bay east elevation features sash windows in plain ashlar surrounds, with 20 panes below and 12 panes above. A six-panel door with toplights is centrally placed, within a semi-circular arched opening containing a radially-glazed fanlight and set under an open stone porch with slim Tuscan columns and pilasters, plain entablature and flat roof. Side wings have plain parapets and copings with tall French casement windows within flat-arched gauged brick openings. A two-storey, three-bay return wing extends westwards, with casement windows, some with leaded lights and others with small panes and cast-iron frames. Raked buttresses rise to half-height in the centre of this wing, with 20th-century additions and a lean-to on the west gable.

A matching brick building adjoins the northwest corner, with high stepped gables, suggesting a previous thatched roof, now covered in Welsh slate, and featuring a weathervane dated 1894. A barn is situated at the west end of this building, and an upper room with a three-light 'Y' traceried pointed arched casement window in the east gable is also present; some of the walling under this window is constructed of lias stone. A lean-to building in random stonework is attached to the north side of this extension.

The interior, which was not inspected, is reported to contain a heavily moulded framed ceiling in the hall and a chamfer-beam panelled ceiling in an inner room. However, much of the internal work dates to the 19th or 20th century. A stone set upside down in the south wall of the wing is dated 1687, and the multi-coloured brickwork, with well-burnt headers, is likely to be from the earlier 18th century. The upper room over the barn may have been used as a religious meeting house.

Extending eastwards from the northeast corner of the house is the north boundary wall, built in English garden wall bond and approximately 3 metres high, with thin Ham stone coping, finished with a curved drop at the east end to a pair of rusticated ashlar gate piers. These piers incorporate moulded plinths and pyramidal caps, supporting wrought-iron gates, likely from the 19th century, featuring worked arrowheads to the middle and top rails, with curved rails and braces to the bottom panel. The wall and gateway combine to create a notable setting for the house.