Walled Garden, Knockbrex

Walled Garden, Knockbrex

The original Knockbrex House, dating from circa 1820, was a plain harled house of 3 bays and 2 storeys with a tripartite ground-plan, piended slate roof and 2 axial stacks. A single storey L-plan service range stood to the west. In 1900, the house was comprehensively refaced and incorporated into a large asymmetrical country house built for James Brown of Knockbrex. The core of the older house now lies to the southeast with an additional bay to the east; the west range was raised to 2 storeys and attics. The new work features rubble walling with granite margins to angles and openings, a moulded granite eaves cornice, and slate roofs.

The north elevation presents a long 2-storey range with the refaced early 19th-century 3-bay block to the east. The centre bay has been shallowly advanced and given a broad gable with a pedimented porch supported by granite columns. Double-leaf panelled doors from the earlier house are retained. Flanking the porch are blocked sidelights with a tripartite window above. All other windows are single light, functioning as sash and case with small-pane upper sashes and plate glass lower lights. To the left is a 2-storey recessed bay added in 1900, with a single storey timber and glass conservatory below. To the right, two boldly projecting gabled bays feature blind oculi to their gables and single light and bipartite windows in the same sash and case manner. At the extreme west of this range is a small walled service court with 2-storey buildings recently altered to accommodate a garage at ground floor with sliding timber doors.

The south elevation is a long asymmetrical range with a canted bay to the centre of the original house, linked to a single storey projection to the west featuring a balustraded parapet. Two advanced gabled bays project to the west. The roof is of slate with axial corniced stacks and a piened roof to the original part. Some 3-light timber dormers of 1900 date are present.

The interior was largely redesigned during the 1900 alterations in neo-Georgian and Arts and Crafts style. The hall, timber panelled with an embossed leather frieze and a beaten copper chimneypiece, is particularly impressive, and includes a scale and platt stair. The drawing room to the south retains panelling, a door and plasterwork from the original house. To the east, a room of the original house was enlarged to create a billiard room featuring a glazed brick chimneypiece and panelling all of 1900 date. A small water closet off the billiard room contains elaborate tiling and fittings.

To the north of the house is a sunken formal garden containing a centrally placed sundial of 1900 date. The sundial has a simple octagonal base and shaft with a carved near-hemispherical horizontal-faced dial of metal, with a metal gnomon. A rubble walled and coped garden wall runs to the north of the house, with a pair of rubble gatepiers surmounted by ball finials and cast and wrought-iron gates.

To the south of the house is a haha with ditch. A centrally placed rubble bridge with a cast-iron gate spans the haha, which has a coped parapet. At the ends of the haha are squat rubble-built drum turrets with castellated parapets, joined by tall rubble curved garden walls.

Pairs of square rubble gatepiers with ball finials and elaborate cast and wrought-iron gates of 1900 date stand to the east and south of the house. These are linked by ornamental rubble walls, some featuring decorative pebble coping.