Sandy Haven House

Sandy Haven House

This substantial farmhouse, formerly a gentry house, consists of a complex additive plan with origins spanning from the 17th century onwards. The building is constructed of rubble stone, originally roughcast, with surviving examples visible on the northeast and northwest elevations; the southeast and southwest parts are extensively covered in twentieth-century unpainted cement render. The roofs are finished with imitation slates.

The main range runs north to south and forms a tall, narrow three-storey block with an attic storey. The north and south gables are coped with small apex chimneys. Large roughcast wall-face chimneys occupy near-central positions on both east and west sides. The chimney on the east side is a large bifurcated stack positioned at the junction with the southeast wing. A projecting northeast gabled stair tower with an apex stack rises to the right of the main range.

The southeast wing has a coped east gable with an apex stack. On the south side sits the main entrance, a rubble stone arched opening set within a recessed porch. A small window is positioned to the right, with a large 12-pane sash above. To the left, the south elevation of the main range terminates in battlements on the east side between the chimney and the southeast angle, presenting a tall single-window elevation. An attic window with an ovolo-moulded stone mullion, 2-light design and dripstone is positioned immediately above a second-floor large 12-pane sash (the centre mullion is missing). Twelve-pane sashes appear on the first and ground floors. The south farmhouse range is attached to the southwest angle of the main range.

The northeast stair tower features twentieth-century windows: one to the ground floor and one to the second floor on the east end, and one to the first floor on the north return. The main range's north end has similar twentieth-century 2-light timber mullion windows with concrete lintels, arranged vertically (three on the left side and one on the right). However, the gable retains an original stone-mullioned 2-light window with a hoodmould.

The west side of the main range contains a massive central chimney stack, rendered and corniced, positioned on the roof slope with an outshut to its right and a broad gabled projecting northwest wing to its left. The outshut is plain and rendered, running into the roof of the added south range. The northwest wing dates to the 17th century and features a coped west gable, small apex stack, and a large south side-wall stack with a battered chimney breast and tall rubble stack. The west end has a twentieth-century large first-floor 3-light timber window with transom and concrete lintel, a ground-floor 12-pane sash, and a similar large twentieth-century window on the north side. A narrow outshut extends to the left in the angle to the main range. The northwest wing's south side features a 2-storey lean-to, continued west of the west gable and finishing in an asymmetrical gable. The west end contains a first-floor 12-pane sash and ground-floor twentieth-century window, with small windows on each floor in the short north return.

The long south wing is probably 18th century but may be older. This 2-storey range has two roughcast ridge stacks and a massive south-end outside stack, the top of which is rubble stone and square. The east front displays a 3-window range of 12-pane horned sashes with a centre door to its right, followed by a one-window range to the left and a lean-to porch at the extreme left with a northward-facing door. Similar sashes appear on the east and south elevations. The south end features a first-floor sash to the right with a wall flush to the chimney, while to the left the wall is set back, exposing the chimney's scale, with a long slate-roofed lean-to positioned against its west side. The rear west side has a centre large twentieth-century flat-roofed addition built against a northwest stair gable; above this is a 12-pane sash with dripstone, and the south slope of the gable has been raised and incorporated into the twentieth-century addition. A lean-to porch sits between the stair gable and the lean-to on the 17th-century northwest wing.

The building is not available for inspection but is reported to have been extensively modernised. The south-end room formerly contained an old fireplace, now replaced; the adjacent room to the north has closely spaced squared joists. A stair hall occupies the north section, with one further room to the north featuring an arched recess in its north wall and a panelled 18th-century cupboard in its west wall. An archway to the east leads to what may have been the original entry. A whitewashed rubble stone barrel-vault exists on the ground floor of the southeast wing, which was latterly used as a dairy, and has a south doorway with a rubble 4-centred arched head. The stair formerly in the northeast stair turret was possibly removed in the 17th century and replaced by one at the north end of the main range, which has since also been replaced.

The northwest wing contains a panelled parlour dating to circa 1700, featuring bolection-moulded fielded long panels and a frieze of narrow panels above. A moulded dado rail runs throughout. At the right end of the south wall stands an arched doorway with double panelled doors, and at the left end a panelled recess, with a nineteenth-century fireplace positioned between them.

The main range has a modern roof composed of four collar trusses with notched lapped collars positioned over the northwest wing; these are chamfered on their undersides.