Battle House

Battle House is a substantial house, likely dating to the 18th century, built of rubble stone with a slate roof that overhangs at the eaves. It has large stone end stacks and is set on a basement with a well around three sides. The building has two storeys and an attic, originally with a three-window front, though this has been altered. The front features three renewed hipped dormers with 16-pane sashes and slated sides. The first floor has three large, renewed, cambered headed 12-pane horned sash windows with brick heads and stone sills. Two large, squared stone canted bay windows, each with a hipped slate roof and 4-pane sashes, are set into the front. Basement windows are present beneath the left bay, with stone voussoirs, and a blocked window to the right bay. The central front door is a six-panel design, with four fielded panels and Georgian Gothic tracery to the fanlight. It is set within a renewed timber doorcase of side piers, a frieze with consoles, and a flat top, and stands on a large stone-flagged platform. A barrel-vaulted space lies beneath the door platform, with stone steps up from each side and front iron railings. Six steps rise from the west and three from the east. The basement’s front arch is broad and cambered, with stone voussoirs. A plank door with a plain fanlight, protected by a wrought-iron security gate, is located within. The right-hand end wall features a 12-pane horned sash window on the ground floor, while the left-hand end is windowless. The rear of the house has 16-pane hornless sash windows to each floor on the left, with a brick head to the lower one and stone voussoirs to the upper one. A back door, also with stone voussoirs, is positioned to the left of centre, above which is a large 8-pane overlight. A rebuilt 20th-century block extends to the right of centre, with a further 16-pane sash window to each floor on the far right, each with stone voussoirs.

Inside, a fine open-well timber staircase of 18th-century style is a notable feature. It has turned balusters of a column on vase pattern, turned column newels, ramped rails, and rises on three sides to a landing with a similar rail on three sides. The front door has panelled reveals and a doorcase with pilasters, a moulded arch, and a keystone. Fielded-panelled doors are generally used throughout the house. One east-facing room has a late 18th- to early 19th-century dentil cornice and a simple white marble fireplace with roundels at the upper angles, alongside a 19th-century cast-iron grate. The bay window in this room has fielded panels below the windows, likely dating to the 18th century, and one leaf of shutters is also fielded panelled. A west-facing room features a moulded dado rail with a timbered dado and an 18th-century moulded painted wood cornice. Behind this room is a passage with fielded panelled doors and oak service stairs to the south, which block an arch in the back wall; this arch corresponds to one in the basement and is opposite another into a rebuilt rear utility room. A smaller northwest-facing room has a 19th-century iron grate in a modern surround.

A deep cellar is accessed by 14 oak steps. It contains two large arches at the north end, one under the back wall and one under the rear addition, both with stone voussoirs, the function of which is uncertain. A full-length, broad stone barrel vault, buttressed by piers in the centre, runs along the east side. At the south end is an 18th or early 19th-century partition wall with an oak door leading to a south-facing wine cellar with brick and stone wine bins. The west-side rooms have plastered ceilings and fireplaces with stone voussoirs in the west wall. The northwest room was formerly a kitchen, containing a bread oven within the fireplace, and another in a large 19th-century plastered corner addition. The southwest room has a window in the south wall. Plank doors are generally used in the basement.