Underwood House Including Gatepiers And Boundary Wall

Underwood House is a villa dating to around 1855, with a later extension added in 1867. It is a two-storey, three-bay building arranged in a ‘T’ shape and built in a Jacobean style. The front of the building has projecting bays with gabled dormers breaking the roofline. The exterior is constructed of coursed, finely droved squared sandstone, with rubble to the north elevation, and ashlar dressings. There is a projecting base course and a moulded cill course on the first floor, interrupted by the projecting bays. The corners are emphasised with raised, V-jointed long and short ashlar quoins, and the south elevation features chamfered margins. The eaves are finished with plain timber bargeboards.

The principal (south) elevation has a shallow, pilastered doorpiece with a decorative strapwork entablature and a margin-paned fanlight above the door. It is flanked by double-height, advanced bays, one featuring a canted three-light window with a moulded stone parapet and a central shield on the ground floor. A bipartite window is centrally placed on the first floor. Raised, round-headed margins frame the upper windows on the outer bays. A two-storey, single-bay extension is recessed to the far left. A tall ground floor window is located next to the re-entrant angle of the ‘T’ plan, and a dormer breaks the eaves.

The west elevation features a centrally advanced, gabled bay (the 1867 extension), with ground and first floor windows set within a corniced and moulded stone frame. A window is visible in the recessed gabled right-hand bay, which forms part of the original house, while a first-floor window is visible in the recessed left-hand bay.

The north (rear) elevation includes an advanced gabled central bay, a single-storey lean-to brick service extension at the ground floor, and two blind windows on the second floor with raised margins and painted sash and case detailing. A round-headed window is placed on the first floor of the original, recessed left-hand bay. A small, single-storey pitched roofed extension projects to the far right.

The east elevation is arranged with four bays, the two gabled bays on the left, a slightly recessed, flat-roofed two-bay section to the right, and a further recessed single-bay service wing. Ground floor openings are hoodmoulded, while those on the first floor are round-headed; blind windows are present in the outer bays and the penultimate bay on the left at the first floor level.

The windows are timber sash and case, with 12-pane lying panes and 4-pane variations, along with a timber panel door. The roof is pitched and flat, covered with grey slates, and features corniced ashlar gablehead and wallhead stacks with octagonal clay cans.

The interior has not been inspected (as of 2004).