Rammerscales House

Built circa 1760. Medium-scale Palladian mansion,

rectangular-plan, 3 storeys with sunk basement and roof

balustrade. 3-bay front and rear elevations, 5-bay flanks, lightly-droved red ashlar, polished dressings and continuous

cill band at 1st floor. E front: recessed distyle in antis

Doric porch, architraved door with traceried fanlight;

similarly proportioned tripartite above, inner light consoled

and pedimented, outer 1st floor windows each with consoled

cornice; 2nd floor windows in double-lugged architraves

(ground floor windows in double-lugged margins); angles

channelled at ground. Unmargined windows to other elevations:

continuous blocked cornice. Corniced stacks; piended

shallow-pitch slate roof concealed by parapet.

Low lean-to addition to rear (W) blocks original door;

louvered timber game store nearby.

INTERIOR: tripartite plan, and largely intact; some refitting

early 19th century; rear service rooms altered circa 1938 by

M Purdon Smith. Doric screen in entrance hall, cantilevered

stair beyond with cupola and with early 19th century

cast-iron balustrade. 18th and early 19th century

chimneypieces; some good cornice plasterwork, particularly in

large drawing room; long gallery full length of top floor

fitted out mid 19th century (?by John Starforth) for library

of William Bell MacDonald.