Garden And Statuary, Stevenson House

Stevenson House is a quadrangular house likely dating from the early 17th century, with substantial later additions and alterations. The house is arranged around a small internal courtyard and stands three stories high with nine bays.

Around 1820, the house was substantially modified with the addition of two bowed fronts to the south elevation, and a laundry wing and coach house were built adjoining the north side. The house was repaired and restored in the late 1940s, and the laundry wing and coach house were converted and significantly altered in the 1950s, a project overseen by Mary Tindall, the architect. The exterior is predominantly random rubble harled and pointed, with the western face pointed, and the south-facing bowed fronts constructed in ashlar.

The west elevation presents nine bays in a quasi-symmetrical arrangement. All windows have raised ashlar margins and are chamfered. A simple cornice runs along the top. A central flat-roofed porch is built of harl pointed rubble with rusticated ashlar quoins and rybats in grey sandstone, incorporating a base course, cornice, and blocking course; relieving arches are visible over the lintels. The porch contains a two-leaf, six-panelled door with a bevelled top edge, flanked by a single window on each side.

The south elevation features two advanced bowed fronts in brown ashlar sandstone, each with three bays and a conical roof topped with a ball finial. Single bays flank the bowed fronts, each with windows. The tops of the second-floor windows are foreshortened throughout. The westernmost bow contains a two-leafed door with three glazed panels above a lower panel, in the central bay of the ground floor. Polished ashlar margins with raised cills are present on the bowed fronts.

The east elevation is asymmetrical, displaying six bays. The ground floor contains six small openings, including two infilled and two slit windows. The first floor includes a window in the seventh bay, a later addition with cement margins. Dummy windows are present in the second bay from the south on both the first and second floors.

The north elevation is plain and unassuming, with extensions adjoining the northwest side and a wall adjoining the northeast side, enclosing an outer courtyard. A drive leads north. Three principal bays feature two plain dormers with piended roofs. Two doorways and one window are present on the ground floor. A later stairway leads to a first-floor door, flanked by a recent bipartite window with horns and a timber mullion; a modern carport built of timber and plastic sheeting has been added.

The inner courtyard has piended stair towers at three corners, originally also on the southwest corner. A two-storey lean-to encloses corridors on all sides, seemingly added around 1820. A doorway is located on the south side. Various windows, irregular in placement, are found on three floors, and two gabled dormers are present on the east elevation.

A gateway of ashlar with a pyramidal cap, where the gate has been removed, adjoins the enclosure wall, which is constructed of random rubble with a semi-circular coping and two plain boarded doors. A second outer gateway of ashlar with a hemispherical cap is located to the north.

Most windows are timber sash and case without horns and have 12 panes, except where noted and 6 panes to the second floor on the south elevation. The piended roof is covered in graded grey Scotch slate, with a bell-cast at the eaves. Seven stacks are located on the roof ridges, all harled with projecting copes, thackstanes, and decorative octagonal cans.

The garden to the south features decorative wrought-iron gates from the 1950s, adorned with double-headed eagles. Two cast-iron lions border a path, leading to three stone statues of children standing on plinths: one boy bearing fruits, one girl bearing flowers, and one boy reading a book.