The Mansion House

The Mansion House

A free classical style house of three bays and two storeys with attics and basement. The walls are constructed of rock-faced Pennant sandstone with lighter Bath stone dressings. The roof is slate with a hipped form, bracketed eaves, and rock-faced stone stacks with freestone quoins.

The front and side walls feature sill bands and a cornice over the lower-storey windows. Windows throughout are two-pane sashes. The symmetrical front elevation is dominated by a central double entrance bay. The two doorways are framed by panelled pilasters with foliage capitals and have round-headed overlights with keystones. Relief carving of beasts appears in the spandrels above each doorway. Each doorway is furnished with double panelled doors. Above the pilasters are fluted consoles supporting an upper-storey balcony with stone balustrade and open quatrefoil ironwork. A pair of windows in segmental stone architraves open onto this balcony.

The outer bays contain two-storey and basement canted bay windows with two lights, keystones to flat heads, and cornices to flat roofs. The attic contains three full dormers with round-headed lights and pediments. The central dormer is two-light with scrolled wings, while the outer bays have three-light dormers. The pediments project on relief moulded corbels and bear relief carvings of urns, dragons and other beasts. Each pediment is topped with an apex ball finial.

The right side wall begins with an external flue, followed by a two-storey two-light bay window with details matching those of the front. The three-light dormer with pediment follows the same pattern. To the right of this bay window is a further bay containing a pair of windows in architraves. Beyond this is a projecting two-storey wing housing the original billiard room, which is lower than the main range and features a moulded cornice to projecting eaves of its hipped roof. The front elevation of this wing has two windows in architraves, and the side wall has three windows with similar detailing, both elevations featuring sill bands and cornices matching those of the main range. The simpler rear elevation of the billiard room wing contains two lower-storey windows flanking an added external flue.

The rear elevation of the main range features two tall three-light stair windows, below which is a single-storey projection. This projection has a two-storey two-window bay to its left with added escape stairs from a boarded attic door, then a two-storey projection further left with a panelled door. A gabled service wing sits to the right of the stairs.

The left side wall is similar to the right, with an external stack followed by a canted bay window with basement and pedimented dormer. Further left are three windows and a doorway with elliptical arch to a plain overlight and double panelled doors. The basement immediately to its right also has a panelled door. The service wing is continuous with this elevation but is lower and has plainer moulded eaves. It features two external stacks between three sash windows in architraves with sill band and cornice in the lower storey. The gable end is blank. The opposite side wall of the service wing, facing the rear of the main range, has two windows with sashes and a central boarded door under a cambered head.

Interior

The entrance contains a small vestibule with half-glazed double doors incorporating etched glass, which leads to a central stair hall. The imperial stair features square newels with fluted shafts and moulded square balusters. The lower flight is wide enough to allow a dividing wall to be built, enabling the stairs to serve two separate dwellings. The hall has a classical ceiling cornice incorporating an egg-and-dart frieze, and hall mirrors with plant holders set in an architrave with broken segmental pediment.

The drawing room to the right of the hall contains two classical fireplaces with mirrors to overmantels. A small library behind the drawing room is now plain. The original dining room on the left side of the hall has two similar classical fireplaces without overmantels. Behind it is a 'business room'. The billiard room in the wing on the right side of the house has twentieth-century fireplaces.