County Chambers (former Congregational manse)

The County Chambers, formerly a Congregational manse, is a house constructed of squared pink tooled stone with Bath stone dressings, featuring steep slate roofs with deep eaves. This two-storey building with an attic is designed in an L-shape, consisting of a one-bay main gable on the left and a one-bay wing at a right angle on the right, both topped with truncated ridge chimneys. The main gable showcases ornate bargeboards with an apex collar and struts above, supported by large arched braces that extend down to paired corbels beneath the eaves.

The structure has an ashlar capping to the plinth, flush quoins, window surrounds, and a broad band over the ground floor with top and bottom mouldings. The windows include timber mullion-and-transom designs, with a segmental-pointed headed 2-light window in the attic, a square-headed 3-light window on the first floor, and an ashlar canted bay on the ground floor, where the broad band continues as a parapet with inset panels featuring 1-3-1-light windows.

A porch located at the angle of the wing has walling that continues from the main gable, with the parapet extending from the band. It features an ornate doorway with a stilted segmental-pointed roll-moulded head and inset Gothic columns on the jambs. The entrance includes a four-panel door with Gothic chamfering on the upper panels and an overlight. There is a buttress to the right of the porch.

The wing continues the broad band and has a single light window on the first floor above the porch, a 2-light window on the first floor to the left, and a 3-light window on the ground floor. The gable end is rendered and features an attic 2-light window, two narrow single light windows on the first floor, and a ground floor French window with a 2-light top-light and a cambered arch under the transom. Modern steps lead up to the entrance.

The left side of the main gable is windowless, with the plinth and broad band wrapping around. To the left, there is a slightly projecting gable with a half-hipped roof and a 2-light window in the gable, along with a pair of doors on the ground floor beneath a relieving arch and a pent slate hood.