Avon Rath

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey three-bay T-shaped house with Gothic window details. It stands in a rural area set back from the public road in farmland.

The main entrance faces approximately south. The south elevation has walling of rubble blackstone with red brick dressings to the openings. The roof is of fibre cement slates, surmounted by a central chimney stack comprising a wide lateral podium carrying five chimneys, all in concrete brickwork, the chimneys of square plan, sitting diagonally except for the middle one, and all with modern stub pots. Rainwater goods are of uPVC.

Windows are of varied size and form arranged asymmetrically. The left hand bay is marked by a gable which breaks the eaves line but stops short of the main ridge. It has plain timber barge boards. In the ground floor is a rectangular doorway containing a pair of glazed French windows, each door 4-paned with narrow margin lights, with angled or Tudor arched heads, all set in plain plastered reveals with brick block surrounds. Above it in the first floor is a pair of coupled Gothic arched two-pane lancets of plate glass with torus-moulded frames, set within a Tudor arched opening with plain plastered reveals with brick block surrounds. The right hand bay has a narrow slit window with an angled head and torus-moulded frame set in plastered side reveals within an angle-headed opening with brick block surrounds. Above it in the first floor is a window of cruciform shape with angled ends, set in a plain plastered reveal within a circular brick surround which has brick block dressings to top and bottom and each side.
The main entrance is centrally positioned and comprises a rectangular timber 6-panelled door with a Tudor arch in each panel, set in brick block surrounds which have been later partly obscured with cement render repairs. The doorway is surmounted by a rectangular fanlight vertically divided into four panes, which is connected with a 4-light window to the first floor room above. The upper part of this window has triangular shaped tracery lights, three parts of the fenestration divided by unusual double-torus moulded transoms.

Extending to the left of the two-storey main block is a one-and-two storey wing which curves forward at the left hand extremity. Walling is similar to the main block, with a concrete coping to the parapet-walled single storey parts, while the central part rises through two storeys to a gabled roof with timber barge boards. There are three rectangular windows at ground level, rectangular timber small-paned fixed lights with top hung vents, set in brick block surrounds. In the first floor gablet is a small rectangular window. The end of this wing is of rendered finish.

The north rear elevation of the wing is of lean-to form, its wall finished in roughcast and containing rectangular ledged timber doors including one at first floor level, and one small window. The side walls of the first floor bay are of exposed rubble blackstone.

The west elevation of the main building comprising the gable of the front block and the side of its rear return, has asbestos slated roofs and roughcast walls, with rectangular windows of modern fixed light and opening vent type. Behind a low screen wall which sits in front of this elevation a flight of exterior steps descends to a basement. The ridge of the rear return carries two sets of multiple chimneys in concrete brickwork of similar design to those on the main entrance front.

The north gable of the rear return is of roughcast finish and contains a modern rectangular three-light window in the first floor above a lower gabled, shallower pitched outshot porch of similar materials and modern window types. Its east wall is of dark coloured dry dashed finish in keeping with the rest of the east side of the rear return and the rear of the main front block.
The east side of the rear return contains a modern rectangular window to the right and a pair of what appear to be modern French doors to the left, while above the doorway is an original coupled semi-circular headed window in a Tudor arched opening.

The north rear elevation of the front block has a projecting two storey flat roofed stair tower, all finished with dark coloured dry dash except for the upper part of the east side of the tower which is of exposed blackstone rubble. The north side of the tower has a Tudor arched window opening in the ground floor, containing a three light fixed window with an arched toplight. In the first floor is a pair of rectangular timber three-pane windows with triangular toplights, while the first floor in the east side contains an angled-headed three-pane window set in brick block surrounds, surmounted by a segmental brick relieving arch.

The east gable of the front block is of similar walling to the entrance front, with a brick stringcourse at eaves level, and plain timber barge boards.

In the ground floor is a large rectangular four-light window, each light of four panes with Tudor arched toplights, set in plain rendered reveals, with brick block surrounds and a flat-arched head and deep projecting cill near ground level. Above it in the first floor is a three-light of triple Gothic lancets set in a Tudor arched opening but the lower half of the lancets has been replaced by a modern two light window. Above this, in the apex of the gable, is a highly unusual small cruciform window, square ended, with the upper arm longer than the rest.

SETTING

The building is approached by a driveway bounded by hedges, with no formal gateway. The driveway continues past the front of the house to terminate in a rear yard. In front of the house and to the east side are lawns, with a large gravelled turning circle immediately in front of it. In the yard are outbuildings and farm sheds of no special interest.

Historical information

The precise date of the building is not recorded but a previous house appears on the OS map of 1833 while the present house appears on the OS map of 1853. Stylistically it may be dated to around 1840.

References - Primary Sources
1. OS Map of 1833 (shows previous house).
2. OS Map of 1853 (shows present house).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A two-storey three-bay T-shaped house with Gothic window details. This is an early 19th century house in a Tudor-Gothic cottage style which exhibits some highly unusual details both to the exterior and interior, including small cruciform windows and a variety of arched windows and doors. The house stands as an attractive, unusual, and comparatively rare example of its type.