St Mary's House

St Mary's House is a villa dating from the 18th century, with later 19th-century additions. The original, white-painted stucco front range is topped by a shallow-pitched hipped roof covered in slate, with flat boarded eaves. The two-storey front has a high basement, and features three bays reached by a flight of stuccoed steps leading from a terrace with a parapet. A Tudor-arched, chamfered doorway, originally open, leads into a porch with a quadripartite plaster vault supported by four small, head-shaped corbels. A half-glazed door is within. Large, paired plate-glass sash windows from the late 19th century are present on the first floor, and two larger, triple sash windows are on the ground floor, all with louvred shutters. The centre bay is framed by piers extending to the eaves, which are chamfered on their inner edge. A string course runs at mid-height, and the eaves are brought forward slightly. A basement window is located on the ground floor to the right.

The south end of the garden features later 19th-century gabled additions to the left. The original range has two bays, with a single sash window above and two paired sashes below, both with hood moulds. An added gable to the left features a large, two-storey canted bay with hood-moulded French windows on the ground floor and plate-glass sashes above. A narrower gable to the left again has a four-pane sash over a French window, both with hoods. A rear wing, set back and running west, has a western end stack, a hipped western lean-to, and one window on each floor on its south side.

The north end of the original house has a basement window to the left, a ground-floor cross-window to the right with small-paned glazing (possibly the only surviving original window), and a cross-window above on the first floor without the small panes.

A curved, battlemented screen wall with an arched doorway extends north, linking to a 20th-century block. To the right of the main house, rear ranges are set back. The first has a gable made of lined stucco with overhanging verges and a two-window range. The upper left window is obscured by a slate-hung projection, while the upper right window is a 20th-century metal window. The ground floor has a recessed surround containing an original hornless 12-pane sash and a glazed double-door with overlight to the right. The next section to the right has casement windows on either side of a casement pair, with top lights. Slate steps lead down to the left to a six-panel basement door in the rear wall of the main house.

The interior is spacious, with high ceilings. A 19th-century encaustic tile floor is found in the central hall, which is served by a rear staircase that curves to a straight landing. A niche is positioned halfway up the staircase, which has a ramped rail and stick balusters. Square lantern lights illuminate the stair, with mouldings around its base. The principal front rooms have plaster cornices and six-panel doors in moulded architraves, featuring rosette blocks in the angles. The left-hand room has an ornate oak-leaf ceiling border, a ceiling rose with acanthus motifs, and a 19th-century marble fireplace.