The Orchard

Cadw's description

Location

Set back from the road in its own grounds at the corner with New Street.

History

Part of an C18 house, comprising The Orchard, The Hermitage and Old Barracks Cottage, and known as The Hermitage. The main house was what is now The Orchard, with service rooms contained in what is now the Hermitage and Old Barracks Cottage. Old Barracks Cottage is the earliest component of the 3 sections that made up the house. The house is shown on the 1829 town plan. It was divided into separate dwellings in the second half of the C20.

Exterior

A late-Georgian 2½-storey 3-window house of pebble-dashed walls, slate roof and end stacks. The symmetrical front has a shallow late C19 porch with curly barge boards and finial, and a half-lit panel door with marginal glazing and overlight. Inside the porch is the original fielded-panel door with panelled reveals. In the lower storey are replacement 12-pane sash windows. The upper storey windows are 12-pane horned sashes. In a broad central gable is a pointed Gothic sash window.

The rear has a central round-headed small-pane sash window lighting the stair. The upper storey has 12-pane hornless sash windows to the R and L, and 2 hipped dormers with replacement windows. The lower storey has an added 1-storey addition built as a lean-to against the adjoining property, The Hermitage. To the R is an added 1-storey projection.

Interior

A centrally planned house with entrance hall and, at the rear, an open-well stair with turned newel, plain balusters and scrolled tread ends. The L-hand room has 2 round-headed round-backed niches, between which is a round-headed doorway with radial-glazed overlight, now concealed within the rear projection. The R-hand rear room has an elliptical-headed doorway, now blocked but retaining an overlight with Gothic intersecting glazing bars, that formerly led into the Hermitage.

Reason for designation

Listed for its special architectural interest as a late Georgian house retaining definite character, an integral part of a group of buildings making up a large early C19 house now known as The Orchard, The Hermitage and Old Barracks Cottage, and for its contribution to the historical integrity of Rosemary Lane.