User:Waggers/sandpit/VE testing

Architecture
The building is in the Elizabethan style. Although it dates from the 16th century, the windows were altered in the late 18th century and the building was restored, with some minor changes, in 1895. The walls are of brick, patterned in the English bond, topped by a parapet with stone coping and two bands: a stone-moulded plinth band and another which is now somewhat weathered in appearance. The original openings are decorated with chamfers while the altered ones have rubbed flat arches. The roof is tiled and gabled and there are dormer windows, themselves with hip roofs.

The house has the shape of a capital letter E, with a main rectangular block and projecting wings at each side. The corners on the outside of the building are chamfered while internally the angles have octagonal stair turrets. The tapered chimney stacks attached to the outside walls are described as "massive" in the official listed building description; there are ten of these in all, four to the rear of the building and two on each of the three wings. There are groups of between two and five diagonal flues each, which date from the early twentieth century.

There are two storeys not including the attic.

The recessed front (south)

of three bays has a gable with an attic casement, flanked by a dormer (behind

the parapet ; the centre of the 1st floor has a hoodmould above a carved coat of

arms, and on each side is an original stone mullion and transom window of eight

leaded lights: the ground-floor has similar oakwindows and the stone doorway

(c1900) has a Tudor arch beneath three windows. The flanking elevations facing

the entrance forecourt also have central gables, one 1st floor central sash

window (C18) and a ground-floor mullion and transom window of six-lights, at the

inner side, the former three-bay system having been altered. The tall octagonal

turrets have crenellated parapets, stone mullioned windows at the top on each

face, and below this windows on each face at different levels, some now filled

and others having oak mullioned frames. The south ends of the wings have two

bays below a central gable (with one casement), with C18 sashes (casements to

the ground-floor on the westside). The side and rear elevations are dominated

by the chimney stacks, the intermediate spaces having an irregular pattern of

windows, C18 sashes for the most part, but with some casements of c1900.

Interior : there are rooms with original oak panelling and others with C18

pinewood panelling. Several rooms have stone Tudor fireplaces, one with an

overmantel, and there is a C18 fireplace. Original plaster strapwork ceilings

occur, and the turrets retain their staircases, one being a circular design of

massive timber construction. Country Life; 1904.