Old Court including Former Cider House, Granary and Stable Range

Old Court including Former Cider House, Granary and Stable Range

This substantial medieval and later stone building comprises the main house of Old Court adjoined by a range of outbuildings serving agricultural and domestic purposes.

The main house is constructed of thinly coursed rubble stone with a slate roof. The north-west elevation is dominated by a large projecting stone chimneystack with diagonally set brick flues. To the left of this stack, the ground floor contains a late 15th-century two-light stone transom window with trefoils to the head and panelled tracery; the upper lights are grooved for glass while the lower lights are rebated for shutters, and the window is protected by external iron bars. The first floor above has a 20th-century three-light ovolo mullion window. To the right of the stack is a single-storey outshut with 20th-century windows comprising, from left to right, a two-light transom, two casements, a 20th-century boarded door, and a broad three-light window.

The north-east gable is notable for its tiered medieval fenestration with ovolo-moulded mullions and dripstones. The attic tier has a 20th-century three-light mullion window; the first floor has a 17th-century four-light mullion; and the ground floor has a 17th-century five-light window. To the left are 20th-century metal-framed glazed double doors. The set-back rear wall of the hall on the south-east elevation contains, on the first floor, a two-light camber-headed window with internal shutters and a 20th-century four-light window; on the ground floor are a boarded door with a voussoired stone arch and two 20th-century windows to the right. A stone external stair leads to the granary in the gable to the left.

The south-east wing gable has a blocked opening in the upper gable, a 20th-century three-light mullion with skewback lintel and keystone on the first floor, and a 17th-century four-light ovolo mullion with similar lintel on the ground floor.

The interior of Old Court contains fine structural and decorative features. The main entrance doorway on the south-west has a wooden frame with segmental arched head and a fine studded door. The lobby doorway is of freestone with a Tudor arched head and chamfered jambs with broach stops. The hall is the principal room, its ceiling supported by chamfered beams with hollow and fillet (Wern-hir) stops. It contains a massive fireplace with monolithic shouldered lintel and monolithic chamfered jambs with broach stops.

The parlour retains an early 18th-century four-panel door with L-hinges. Its fireplace lintel is of wood with a segmental head and ovolo moulding. The ceiling beams are chamfered with double ogee moulding and hollow and fillet (Wern-hir) stops, with a simply moulded cornice probably dating to the mid-17th century. A doorway to the dairy is of freestone with a four-centred arch, chamfered with run-out stops. The dog-leg stair features square newels with roll moulding at the angle and domed caps, and reed-moulded balusters with landings.

The first floor includes a window with two-light trefoils to a former solar. The first-floor ceiling beams are chamfered with Wern-hir stops. A former attic stair has been blocked.

The Former Cider House and Granary, attached to the north-east side of Old Court, comprises a two-storey block with outbuildings. It has a four-bay roof structure with collar and tie beam trusses, lofted at the south-east end. The south-east elevation displays the gable of the two-storey cider house and granary on the left, with a projecting single-storey stable wing to the right. Both have segmental stone voussoired arches to their openings. The granary gable contains a first-floor doorway without a door and a ground-floor doorway with a boarded door. The stable is single-storey and has a plank door with strap hinges on the left and a small square barred window opening on the right. A long wall of an attached cartshed projects to the right.

The north-east elevation shows the projecting gable of the stable and cartshed on the left, with the cider house on the right. The stable gable head has a blocked opening and, to its right, a square pitching-hole with boarded shutters. Below is the attached cartshed gable with a lower roof line and a broad opening fitted with boarded double-doors and a horizontal grilled ventilation opening above. The cider house has a square pitching-loft doorway on the upper floor, with a boarded door and barred window opening on the ground floor.

The Stable roof comprises two bays with a central collar truss, formerly lofted.