Spital House

Spital House

A grade B listed building of 18th century origin with substantial mid-19th century addition to the south, and later alterations. The house is an asymmetrical, two-storey structure with attic accommodation, arranged in a near L-plan with gabled features and Tudor details.

The entrance elevation to the west is irregular with five bays. The earlier block is constructed in tooled sandstone rubble with tooled rubble dressings, while the 19th century addition uses coursed and stugged cream sandstone with ashlar dressings that are lightly droved in places. Both sections feature a base course and moulded string course dividing the floors. The earlier block has rubble quoins and plain margins; the 19th century addition has rusticated quoins and tabbed surrounds to chamfered openings.

The west entrance elevation features a two-storey, buttressed projection at the centre with a four-centred arched entrance at ground level, fitted with two-leaf modern glazed doors and a four-pane fanlight, with a single window aligned above. A taller gable end is set off-centre to the left with single windows at both floors to the left of the entrance. The lower, two-storey original block to the outer left contains single windows in three bays at ground level and a tripartite window centred above. A three-bay range recessed to the right of the entrance has single windows at first floor flanking a central gablehead.

The south garden elevation is symmetrical with four bays arranged in a grouped 1-2-1 pattern. Single windows at both floors flank the centre, with steps to a former door at ground level to the right. Gabled projections to the outer left and right have four-light canted windows at both ground and first floors, with narrow attic lights centred in ball-finialléd gableheads. A service courtyard is recessed to the right, enclosed by a coped wall with a three-bay ancillary structure to the left (seven bays to the rear) containing single windows flanking two-leaf, part-glazed doors. An arched entrance is positioned to the right with a curved corner to the outer right.

The east (rear or former side) elevation comprises a two-storey block to the outer left with a projecting two-light window centred at ground level and single windows in two bays above. A three-storey gable end is recessed to the right with single windows in three bays at ground level, single windows at first floor flanking the centre, and a single window at the upper floor to the left. A two-storey original block to the right (obscured at ground by the courtyard wall) has a single-storey mono-pitched ancillary structure adjoined to the left with a single window aligned above, a bipartite window at ground to the right, and a Y-astragalled Venetian window above. A bipartite window appears in a single-storey block to the right, with a further single-storey ancillary structure set at an angle to the outer right and a flat-roofed porch in the re-entrant angle.

The north (side or former rear) elevation shows a near U-plan principal block with a round-arched window centred at first floor and a glazed cupola set behind. A two-storey gable end projects to the right with a single window at ground offset to the left of centre and a four-centred arched window in a buttressed entrance recessed to the outer right. A two-storey gable end projects to the left of centre with a further single-storey, gabled addition at ground level; a single window at first floor is offset to the right, and blank circular panels flank the centre in the gablehead. An enclosed service courtyard adjoins to the left with square-plan, pyramidal-capped sandstone gatepiers flanking an offset entrance, modern timber gates, blank elevations to a single-storey ancillary structure to the right, and a whitewashed three-bay mono-pitched ancillary structure to the outer left.

Throughout, windows are fitted with timber sash and case glazing in 4-, 6-, 8- and 12-pane configurations, with some modern windows in the service courtyard. The roofs are grey slate with gablet-coped sandstone skews and scroll-bracketed block skewputts (gabletted in part). Sandstone ridge and apex stacks with brick-built flues and various circular cans complete the roofscape.

The moulded eaves run across both the earlier and later sections.

The interior was not seen in 1999.

The garden is bounded by squared rubble sandstone walls with coped tops, partially enclosing the site. Pyramidal-capped, square-plan sandstone gatepiers to the north flank the entrance, fitted with modern timber gates.