Hill House

Hill House is a two-storey house built in the 18th century using snecked rubble stone with red brick and freestone dressings, featuring red brick quoins. It has slate roofs, with distinctive stellar-shaped brick stacks, ridge cresting, and overhanging eaves. The windows are diamond-leaded.

The front of the house is consciously asymmetrical and displays Gothic architectural details, particularly in the two advanced bays located centrally and to the right of centre. The broader central bay is gabled and features a pointed arched entrance offset to the right, adorned with continuously moulded terracotta detail and a stopped stone hoodmould above a single light. Above the entrance is a two-light mullioned window with a pointed arched tympanum incorporating a central roundel and a chequerboard pattern, a design element characteristic of Blessley’s work. A small attic light is also present, with a sill band. The bay to the right serves as the stair tower, topped with a hipped swept pyramidal roof and incorporating a weathervane. A tall mullioned and transomed three-light staircase window is present, featuring four-centred arched heads to the top tier, cusped sections below the transom, and stained glass, accompanied by a stone sill band with diagonal stops. A shorter mullioned three-light lobby window sits below. To either side of the advanced bays are flat-headed windows. A single bay to the right has a two-light mullioned window above a mid-to-late 20th century ground floor extension constructed in a matching style with a flat roof and a four-light window. Two bays lie to the left, including a single-storey projection to the right with parapets pierced with circles and a single light window; another single light is positioned above. Further to the left is a cross-window to the kitchen, accompanied by a two-light mullioned window above.

The side elevations are constructed from rock-faced masonry. The east end features two gables, with a corbelled stack to the right and a single light window to the left, with a small lean-to beneath. The west end includes a corbelled stack, a single light window to its left, and a lean-to garage below. The rear of the house is built of snecked rubble stone and includes a projecting two-bay block to the centre, extending under a hipped roof. Window detailing includes flat-headed mullioned windows with diamond-leaded glazing, predominantly two-light in design. A full-height canted bay, constructed of brick with a hipped pyramidal roof and French doors leading onto a terrace, is located to the left of the central block. Above the canted bay is a two-light window. Immediately to the right of the canted bay is a single light window. The right bay of the block features a four-light window with a two-light window above. A stack is situated in the angle of the central block, and to the left of which is a late 20th-century addition in a similar style with a hipped roof. To the right of the central block are a two-light window above a lean-to, accompanied by a conservatory at a right angle, which has been altered at a later date.

An inspection on 3rd May 2001 could not access the interior. However, a 1993 survey indicates that entry is through diamond-glazed inner doors into the staircase hall. The dog-leg staircase is illuminated by the tall stained glass window and features a moulded handrail, closely-spaced scrolled iron uprights, and ‘muscular gothic’ newels decorated to the top with quatrefoils. The hall also includes a Gothic chimneypiece with columns and ballflower ornament to the cornice. The main rooms have six-panel doors with architraves; the door to the hall features a high pointed arch. The rooms exhibit a variety of cornices, including dog-tooth in the hall, acanthus in the drawing room, and foliated designs in the dining room.