Corse House

Corse House is an Italianate villa built in 1863 by Alexander Ellis and James Giles. It is a two-storey, five-bay building on a square plan, with a four-stage belvedere tower at its centre and a hipped roof. The exterior is constructed of squared granite rubble, rendered white, with granite detailing. This includes margins to the openings, quoins, a base course, eaves course, dividing bands to the wallhead chimney stack and tower.

The east (principal) elevation features a central four-stage entrance tower with mullioned bipartite windows to the second stage and semicircular-arched bipartite windows to the third. A dentil-moulded projecting cornice sits between the third and fourth stages, above which are tripartite, semicircular-arched windows. A projecting cornice supports the square-capped roof. To the left is an angled, single-storey canted entrance porch, and to the right, a double bay with a battered wallhead stack in the centre.

The west (rear) elevation has an advanced two-storey canted bay on the outer left, a single-storey rectangular-plan wing with a timber columned porch to the right return under oversailing eaves, and a slightly advanced double bay on the outer right.

The north (side) elevation is characterised by single-storey projecting outhouses to the outer bays, forming a courtyard enclosed by a wall with pyramidal capped entrance piers.

The south (garden) elevation displays a central double bay with an advanced canted granite bay incorporating three-light semi-circular-arched windows, alongside a flat roof bordered by a balustrade. Flanking bays are slightly advanced, with pitched roofs and semicircular-arched ground floor windows.

Inside, the villa includes a galleried hall and a main reception room featuring colonnades of Corinthian columns and an entablature. There are three reception rooms on the ground floor and seven bedrooms upstairs. The windows are predominantly 4-pane sash and case windows. The roof is covered in grey slates, with lead flashing and coped ridge stacks.

A single-storey, two-bay, L-shaped gabled gatehouse is present, constructed of harled rubble with painted granite margins to the openings. An advanced gabled bay faces the driveway, while a former entrance bay has been obscured by a later addition. Semicircular-arched bipartite windows are positioned within the gable ends, and overhanging eaves show exposed rafters. A lean-to addition is located at the rear, and the gatehouse has 4-pane sash and case windows and grey slates with lead flashing. Low, coped rubble quadrant walls terminate in square, pyramidal capped entrance piers.