Bridges Community centre (formerly Drybridge House)

Bridges Community Centre (formerly Drybridge House)

This substantial country house, built of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings and red brick wing, features Welsh slate roofs with ashlar chimney stacks. The building is arranged in a U-plan with a classical Restoration-period block facing the street, enriched with Victorian details in Jacobethan style, complemented by a similar 19th-century west block and connecting range.

The street-facing elevation is symmetrical, rising two storeys plus attic over a five-window frontage. A central ashlar porch stands before a scrolled pediment carved with a cartouche and the inscription 'Rebuilt 1671'; a heraldic lion crowns the five-panel main door. Attached two-storey window bays with Jacobethan overthrows are linked by weathered stringcourses. The windows are marginally glazed sashes with 3 over 3 panes, while attic windows have 3 over 3 equal panes. The hipped roof sweeps over bracketed eaves broken by dormers and a centrepiece, topped with a heraldic finial. Five tall stacks rise from the main roof. Between the attic and first-floor windows runs a panel inscribed 'Restored 1867'.

The left return features a similar one-window south end, with a set-back red brick service wing beyond, approached through a two-storey Doric porch. The service wing is mainly 19th-century in detail, though the brickwork suggests possible 18th-century fabric underneath.

The garden elevation comprises twin ranges with the same treatment, supplemented by ground-floor splayed bays—timber at the left end, ashlar with mullions and transoms to the right, the latter being 6-light with two mullions. A large heraldic carving adorns the inner left wall, and a low arched doorway is offset to the centre range. Windows include marginal glazed sashes and some 6 over 6 pane examples. Modern stair screen walls have been added against the inner right wall.

The rear elevation displays a panel of St George and Dragon on a chimney breast, alongside a tall two-storey ashlar splayed bay. The centre is masked by a modern extension incorporating a mullioned window carved with heads of the 'Three Sisters' taken from the original house. A further single-storey range to the south features an oriel and a square bay carved with King David harping. A substantial wing was added to the rear in the late 20th century.

The interior is largely a 1867 creation, though some older material of uncertain date has been incorporated eclectically. The building retains extensive fittings, including pieces apparently from the 17th-century house alongside elaborate 19th-century furnishings in Jacobethan style.

The two-storey entrance hall features a beamed ceiling on lion mask brackets, with a balustraded gallery to the inner side over twin 17th-century timber arcades. 19th-century panelling, doors and a Georgian overmantel complement the scheme. A partly late 17th-century inner hall with low beamed ceiling leads to a large 19th-century ballroom incorporating 17th-century features. The plasterwork ceiling displays ribs, pendants and Gothic panels in the manner of Treowen; the chimney surround features half columns and dado panelling to the walls. The bay window splays are panelled, with grisaille glass by T W Camm depicting the legend of King Arthur. Possibly later 17th-century details include fretwork foliage over doors with carved panels, cherub and fruit festoons.

Below the stairs, a stone surround and original studded oak door open into a small panelled room with a circa 1800 marble chimney piece carved with a goddess to the tablet. The long panelled stairhall incorporates a late 17th-century chimneypiece with bolection mouldings and pedimented overmantel, unusually fine foliage and fruit festoons carved in the manner of Grinling Gibbons. A Jacobethan dog-leg timber stair with pyramid finials to newels, boarded and beamed ceilings complete the space.

The first floor is said to retain good panelling to doors with raised fields, small marble chimneypieces and similar details.

Note: Only the ground floor was inspected at the most recent survey.