Great House

Great House

This house is built of local rubble stone, completely rendered except for rusticated ashlar quoins, with natural slate roofs. It has an L-shaped plan comprising a large double-pile main block facing south-east, a service wing to the north-east, and a stair wing to the north, demonstrating origins dating to around 1600.

The principal south-east facing block contains five bays across two storeys and an attic (originally a full three storeys). The centre bay is wider than the rest. At ground floor level is a central six-panel door with the top four panels glazed, flanked by six over six pane sashes with moulded architraves. The entire frontage is fronted by a wide pedimented portico with rusticated piers, probably added around 1890. Above this sits a central first floor Venetian window with four over four panes flanking six over six, also with a moulded architrave. The remaining windows are all six over six sashes with stone cills and plain margins, set quite wide apart in a manner often suggesting older walling. A straight joint is reported in the wall to the left of the porch running the full height of the house, suggesting the two left-hand windows at least sit in 18th-century walling. The attic floor has been severely truncated so its six windows are cut by the projecting eaves at approximately half height, now appearing as rendered recesses with stone cills. The roof is hipped overall with swept eaves and three roughcast stacks positioned on either gable wall and to the left of the porch.

The left return features a small hipped wing projecting to the rear. At ground floor level is a segmental-headed French casement at the centre, and the first floor has a segmental-headed eight over eight pane sash to the left; the wall is otherwise blank.

The north-east elevation clearly demonstrates the circa 1600 origins. It comprises five bays, of which the first and third project. Bay 1 is the return from the main elevation, narrow and windowless, with blind recesses on each floor marking where windows once stood. Bay 2 is recessed and has a six over six pane sash on the ground floor and two over two above, with a charming lean-to water closet beside the ground floor window and a steeply pitched roof. Bay 3 is the three-storey gabled entrance porch of the original house, with the entrance door on the right return into the cross-passage between hall and kitchen. The ground floor window is a 1930s three plus three light steel casement; the first floor has a ten plus ten timber casement; the gable features an older leaded lattice two-light casement with bargeboards. Bay 4 contains six over six sashes on ground and first floors, though not aligned vertically, with a steeply pitched roof and a rendered stack between Bays 4 and 5. Bay 5 has a door below and a sash with marginal glazing above, the roof hipped to the end of the wing.

The rear elevation is largely blank but contains a stair wing with a raking buttress and a large twelve over twelve pane sash with an arched head; above and to the right is a small two-light casement.

The interiors contain rich decorative fittings of 17th, 18th and 19th-century date, though some is of uncertain provenance and may have been introduced. The stone-flagged entrance hall, now the Dining Room, features Jacobean wainscoting and a chimney-piece with elaborately arcaded overmantel including foliage frieze, panels and pilasters. This arrangement is mid-18th-century, with six-panel doors leading from it, though the panelling may have been partly rearranged from previous rooms or elsewhere in the house. The present Dining Room and Sitting Room presumably formed from the previous hall, though such panelling would more typically be expected in a parlour or private room. At the rear of the Dining Room is a mid-18th-century arched opening with segmented architrave, keyblock, pilasters and panelled folding doors. Behind this is an open-well staircase with Chinese Chippendale openwork hand-rail and newels, ramped dados with swept-up ends and window seats, lugged wall panels, arched window openings and a coved ceiling. A blank wall on one side of the well suggests missing or unexecuted plasterwork.

The Sitting Room is fully panelled in squares, though these do not align with the cornice, elaborate pilastered overmantel and six-panel doors with architrave surrounds. The present Drawing Room in the south-west corner of the main block may be wholly 18th-century, except that a clearly 16th-century doorway leads out through the rear wall. The room has lost its decorative details and is otherwise featureless. Leading to the kitchen is a paved cross-passage with 17th-century doorways and a timber-framed partition. The kitchen in the rear wing has a high ceiling and 19th-century character, though the stair door at the rear is Elizabethan.

The first floor features a spine corridor running the full length of the front with an unusual coved ceiling. The three main first floor bedrooms have pilastered chimney-pieces and panelled wainscoting similar to the Sitting Room below; two are of Jacobean character and one more 18th-century in character with a bolection-moulded surround. The Library is also fully panelled in 18th-century character with a fireplace and pilastered overmantel. All the Jacobean-type panelling is of uncertain history, as it seems unlikely to be 19th-century work but is equally atypical of Georgian practice to reuse such material during a major house upgrade. Newman suggests it is indeed all early 17th-century, indicating special circumstances may have applied.

The attic floor clearly shows evidence of re-roofing and reveals the interior of the truncated windows. It contains another Elizabethan door with fine hinges. Fireplaces in the rooms indicate they were once proper bedrooms.