Fir Court

Cadw's description

Location

Located S of Castle Road behind Fir Court Stables and with a small garden to the rear. The house is at the centre of a small housing development of c1995.

History

The building is dated by an inscription to 1685 and the plan-form is of one phase. The 1840 Tithe apportionment refers to house, buildings, etc. in the ownership of representatives of late Middleton. The Middletons were the original owners of the house.

Exterior

Unusual plan comprising 2 cross wings and a short central range which forms the entrance bay. Symmetrical to front and rear. Lobby entry plan, 3 window range and two full storeys. Timber-framed with tile roof, central red brick stack, and small E side stack. The timbering consists of box framing with plaster panels, except above the gable bressumers where there are decorative cross braces. The timber framing has been replaced or faced with render to the rear and in the lower storey of the front elevation. The E gable is of coursed masonry construction with a central window to each storey. On the front gable bressumer of the W cross wing is an inscription in relief which reads:

What is here by man erected: it be by God protected: John Middleton: Gent: An: Do: 1685: Aetatis. Suae 27: RTC.

There are plain barge boards surmounted by finials to front and rear. The modern, 6-panelled front door is within a modern glazed porch and the front elevation has wooden casement windows with nine panes on the lower storey and 6 panes on the upper storey. The rear has a modern porch with lean-to roof and open timber work encasing a modern 4-panelled door. The windows are modern casements in differing styles. There is a small rendered lean-to at W end with asbestos corrugated roof and planked door to front.

Interior

No access to the interior (The house was unoccupied at time of inspection). The masonry E end with its small chimney would suggest that the service area was in the E bay.

Reason for designation

Listed as a relatively unaltered example of an important regional type of lobby entry, timber framed house of the late C17. The symmetrical plan is particularly notable as it shows renaissance influences on the regional, vernacular, sub-medieval type. Forms a group with its surviving outbuilding to the N, Fir Court Stables.