Survey Data
Reg No
31817042
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Technical
Original Use
House
In Use As
Hotel
Date
1780 - 1820
Coordinates
187234, 263889
Date Recorded
15/08/2003
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached five-bay two-storey house, built c. 1800, now in use as a hotel, with advanced two-bay tower with entrance and with recessed two-bay gable-fronted block to south end of façade and modern single-storey extensions to east and south. Pitched tiled roof with castellated parapet to façade and with turrets to tower and stone finials to gables of south block. Rendered chimneystacks. Cut limestone façade brought to courses with ashlar entrance tower with string courses. Ruled-and-lined render elsewhere. Finely-tooled plinth. Replacement uPVC windows to northern bays of façade and to modern extensions and with timber sash and casement to south block. Tooled chamfered surrounds to windows, many with label mouldings. Quatrefoil and oriel windows to rear of south block. Apsidally-recessed entrance with limestone flagged floor and four-centered arch with shield over and flanked by engaged half-octagonal three-stage piers of tower. Timber and glazed double entrance doors with traceried four-centered fanlight with hood moulding and flanked by gothic canopied niches. Hotel set in own grounds with sandstone flagged patio area to south with corner turrets to site. Site bounded by random coursed limestone castellated wall. Hotel bounded to roadside by wrought-iron railings surmounting random coursed limestone plinth walls with castellated gate piers.
Appraisal
This Georgian House was remodelled as a miniature Gothic castle possibly by Richard Richards. Though the form of this building has been altered with many extensions added to facilitate its new function as a hotel, it still maintains many original materials. The elaborate entranceway, turrets and castellated parapet combine to make this a very striking building. The landscaped grounds with castellated turrets offset the ruins of the medieval Abbey located to the south of the hotel.