The Gables

The Gables is a detached house dating to circa 1600, with extensions from the early 18th century and modifications in 1911. It is of group value. The facade is built of ham stone ashlar, cut and squared to the sides and rear, with a Welsh slate roof between stepped coped gables and stone chimney stacks. The house is two storeys high, with attics, and has six bays. A plinth, cill, and head string run along the lower portion. Most windows are hollow-chamfered mullioned, set in chamfered recesses. Windows in bays 2 and 6 are angled two-storey bays with 1+3+1 lights. Above these are shaped corbels and coped gables with gabletted finials, each containing a two-light attic window with a hood mould. Bay 4 features a projecting porch with small sidelights on the ground floor and a three-light window above, flanked by two-light windows with hood moulds. A two-light attic window sits in the gable, which is topped with a tall wrought-iron weathervane finial. The porch opening is semi-circular arched, framed by a keystone and impost blocks, containing a moulded cambered arched doorway leading to a 17th-century door. Graffiti from 1615 is present nearby. A wing wall with matching mouldings, likely from the 19th century, is on the south side. A single-storey and a lean-to extension are on the north-east corner, alongside further projections to the rear, including a staircase unit and a small service wing. Internally, a cross passage is present with a plank and muntin partition, a steeply chamfered beam with step-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops, and remnants of a partition. The hall features a lateral fireplace and a fine early 17th-century plastered ceiling with a curved rib design and frieze. This room was extended southwards and eastwards, incorporating a reset outer doorway dated 1726. The dogleg staircase may be original in its lower length, with very thin turned balusters in an as yet undeveloped framework. The upper length has an early 18th-century balustrade. Several cambered arched doorways exist, including one to the small room above the porch. The main south bedroom has a moulded cornice with a vine-leaf frieze, both dating to the early 17th century. The roof consists of collar trusses with two rows of trenched purlins on each side. An outhouse at the rear contains evidence of a bacon curing chamber. Within the grounds are the remains of what is believed to be an 18th-century swimming bath. The house was formerly occupied by Dr. Walters, an antiquary.