Hook House

Hook House is a country house with whitewashed roughcast and slate roofs, comprising two parallel ranges. The main front range is three storeys high, with a two-storey rear range that incorporates a fireplace beam dated 1732. The building has been extended northward in the earlier 19th century and again in 1857.

The main front elevation displays five bays with a sixth bay to the left beyond the ridge stack. Windows include sash windows with 6x9-pane attic lights, 5x12-pane first floor windows, and two early 19th-century 4-12-4-pane tripartite sashes flanking an earlier 20th-century two-panel door with overlight. A decayed early 19th-century tent verandah with paired posts and remnants of trellis extends across this elevation. The south end gable of the front range is windowless.

A late 19th-century whitewashed stucco single-storey library wing projects from the left end bay on the northwest, featuring two triple sashes to the south, a west chimney, and a lean-to conservatory partly built against the west end wall. A short rear return is slate-hung.

The rear range contains a modern loft window in the end gable above a roughly slated lean-to, which encloses a stone-vaulted room. The rubble stone rear elevation has a long 21-pane staircase window flanked by 12-pane sashes on each floor. Red brick window heads with stone keystones are evident, with a timber lintel to the staircase light. A square stone chimney stack stands to the north.

The long range extending northward is early 19th-century work up to a brick ridge chimney, with the section beyond a datestone of 1857. This part features six-pane and nine-pane windows at various levels, with a straight joint marking the transition. A first-floor porch at the north end reflects the rising ground level. The 1857 extension has a rubble stone west front with upper and ground floor windows flanking a door, with no windows to the right of the straight joint. The north end of the main range is gabled and partly pink-washed, with early 19th-century date, featuring a French window to the ground floor and a six-pane sash above with brick head. An earlier coach-house backs onto the north wall of the library, with north end double doors under a depressed arch and a hipped rear roof. The roof was replaced in the 20th century.

The interior of the front range comprises a centre passage with rooms to either side. The north dining room retains a 19th-century fireplace. The rear staircase features an elliptical arch, closed string, turned balusters, and fluted newels. A dog-leg stair rises to the attic floor, though floor levels do not align well, suggesting the staircase may be reused.

The rear wing contains a room with a timber lintel over a fireplace dated 1732 with heavy joists above. Similar substantial joists appear to the right of the stair. The end right room features a rough stone barrel vault with a window in the end wall. The first floor landing contains panelling and three doors with bolection-moulded frames; the centre narrow dressing room is also panelled, and the left room retains original shutters. At attic level, the landing balusters are flat rather than turned. Oak pegged collar-trusses are present in the rear roof, altered above the stair. The front loft is floored above the attic window level, with a covered roof of pine trusses.

The ground floor north end room was added in the early 19th century with a French window to the north and a dentil cornice added in the 20th century. A similar bedroom occupies the floor above. The northwest library addition dates to the late 19th century.

Beyond the 1732 fireplace, the next room contains a deep fireplace with a 20th-century renewed lintel and a blocked west window, likely blocked by the early 19th-century north addition to the front range. The first floor has a stepped chimney breast, and pine roof trusses to this section are early 19th-century work. Service rooms lie beyond in the 1857 range to the north, comprising a former farm-labourers' kitchen and larder.