Water Tower, Arthurstone House

Water Tower, Arthurstone House

This is a classical house with substantial later extensions, situated within its own landscaped grounds as part of a larger complex that includes a linked former coach house, screen wall, and water tower, arranged in a rough E-plan.

The main house dates from 1795-1800, with significant mid and later 19th century additions in Jacobean style by architects George Steele and W Dunn. It was converted to residential units between 2004 and 2006. The building is constructed from squared and pinned red sandstone rubble with ashlar margins, featuring a variety of window openings including rectangular, round-arched, and tripartite transomed and mullioned arrangements. Details include cill courses, hood moulds, and shouldered skewputts.

The west elevation, dating from 1795, presents a symmetrical 3-storey, 5-bay section with a central canted bay. It has a base course, cill courses, and cornice, with raised cills to the upper storey. The central canted bay features an advanced Doric columned and pedimented entrance with a part-glazed timber door and fanlight. Tall window openings occupy the ground floor. A single-storey gabled bay on the far left, added in 1838, contains a transomed and mullioned tripartite window with hood moulding and a monogram above, topped with a ball finial. The gable has raised skews and shouldered skewputts.

The south elevation combines work from 1795 and circa 1840, presenting a 2- and 3-storey gabled elevation with a lower single-storey 3-bay section to the right and a further 2-storey rubble, piended-roofed bay to the far right with raised margins. A cill course sits above the first floor, with raised cills throughout. An off-centre oriel window with a bipartite window above features prominently. To the right is a symmetrical single-storey, 3-bay section with a central, slightly advanced gabled bay containing a pointed-arched niche. An advanced rectangular window with hood moulding sits above ground to the far left. Ball finials crown the gable apices.

The north elevation comprises two courtyards. The west courtyard contains a circa 1870 flat-roofed extension with a decorative hood-moulded entrance doorway featuring a panelled timber door with fanlight and the Carmichael coat-of-arms above. The east courtyard is formed by a dated 1797 former 2-storey coach house with an off-centre advanced bay facing west, incorporating an in-filled segmental-arched opening at ground level and a round-arched window opening above. Timber entrance doors with fanlights appear elsewhere on this elevation.

The roofing is predominantly piended to the 18th century section and gabled to later sections, all covered in grey slates with cast-iron rainwater goods. Wall-head and ridge corniced stacks include some polygonal cans to the 19th century sections. Windows are predominantly multi-pane timber sash and case, with some timber casement windows.

Interior features, partially observed in 2012, include original rooms retaining fine 18th and 19th century decorative work. The entrance hall to the west contains a decorative timber arch leading to an open well cantilevered stair with pierced oval panel balusters, timber handrail, and curved newel. The former drawing room displays elaborate Louis XVI plasterwork, including decoration to the chimneypiece. A former timber-panelled dining room retains elaborate Mannerist carved figurative and foliate decoration with a columned chimneypiece depicting hunting scenes. Other rooms feature decorative timber chimneypieces and cornicing throughout, with 4-panelled timber doors.

The water tower to the north, constructed in 1838, is linked to the former coach house by a rubble screen wall with a segmental-arched coach opening. The tower is a 3-stage structure with an ogee roof, featuring a pair of panelled timber entrance doors on its south elevation. A carved 16th century dormerhead is set into its west face.