Exterior
A large country house designed in a free Gothic style, of snecked rock-faced stone with lighter stone dressings to the principal elevations, roughcast and painted white to the SE wing, mainly of two-and-a-half storeys. The roofs are slate and have ridge stacks of stone, with brick shafts to the service end. The entrance front faces N. The main entrance wing has 9 bays in the lower storey projecting forward, with stair hall, great hall and billiard room further R. The entrance wing has a shallow projecting porch with splayed sides, with a segmental-headed doorway flanked by cusped lights. The flanking bays have 3-light mullioned and transomed windows and relieving arches, but are of different dates. On the L side is a dining room dated 1928 on the rainwater heads; on the R side is the library dated 1880 on rainwater heads. Above is an openwork parapet either side of the blind panelled parapet over the porch, all of which defines a balcony above the lower storey. The upper storey has an advanced gabled bay above the entrance, housing one of the 2 main stairs, which has diagonal buttresses, a 4-light mullioned and transomed stair light with 2-light attic window. To the R, where the wall is roughcast and painted white, are a 2-light window flanked by 3-light windows, with 3 roof dormers. To the L of the staircase bay are three 3-light mullioned and transomed windows asymmetrically placed. To the R of the entrance range the second and principal stair hall is set back from the lower storey. It has 2 tiers of 4-light windows, the upper tier larger and with reticulated tracery under a flat head, while above is a pointed trefoil window. A gable projects on a roll-moulded cornice. The gabled great hall projects forward further R. It has stepped diagonal buttresses, a 3-light N window with curvilinear tracery modelled on Claybrooke church in Leicestershire. The L side has a single cusped lancet. On the R side is a lower polygonal oriel in dressed stone added by 1914. It is buttressed and has 2-light transomed windows.
Behind the oriel is a single-storey 2-bay link to the billiard room added in 1894. The link has a 4-light window on the L side (behind modern escape stairs) and a Tudor-headed doorway with fielded panel door on the R. Above the doorway is a tablet with a wreath and the date in relief. The single-storey asymmetrical 4-bay billiard room also projects forward, and has a flat roof with 2 lanterns behind a plain parapet. It is buttressed, with diagonal buttresses to the angles, and has 3-light mullioned and transomed windows, except the centre-R bay which is wider, projects forward and has a 6-light window and single-light side windows. Cast iron vent covers set into the wall are dated 1894. The R (W) side of the billiard room is plainer, having a half-lit door under a segmental head to the L side. Behind the billiard room is a single-storey service building then the much altered SW wing, which has extensive additional wings built from the mid C20 when the building was a miners' rehabilitation centre.
Mid C20 extensions are also behind (S of) the billiard room. Facing E, the 6-bay SW wing, added by Godfrey Clark before 1914, survives with 2-light windows but has an added upper storey and an added narrower polygonal projection at the S end, dated 1927 on a rainwater head. Originally a conservatory stood behind the billiard room, entered from the E through the main corridor. This entrance can be seen externally in the form of a full-height bay window under a hipped roof that rises above the 1-storey mid C20 hall replacing the conservatory. To the R of the bay window is the W wall of the former drawing room, which has 2 round-headed doorways, both with replaced doors and originally opening to a terrace, while the upper storey has two 2-light casements under segmental heads.
The S garden front has the drawing room at the W end. It has a full-height canted bay to the centre with mullioned and transomed windows, 2-light first-floor casement to the R, and then a further bay set back with 2-light windows. To the R of the drawing room the walls are roughcast and painted white. There are 3 unequal bays, comprising full-height canted bay to the L, the lower window having cusped lights, and a 3-light mullioned and transomed first-floor window below a hipped roof. To its R are 2 cross windows in the lower storey and a cross window and a 3-light window in the upper storey. There are two 3-light roof dormers and a third roof dormer in the angle with a return wall of the lower SE wing. The SE wing is the remodelled earlier house on the site. Its W elevation has a 3-light window to the L and 2-light to the R, while the upper storey has 3-light to the L and 2-light windows centre and R. There are 3 gabled roof dormers. A clock tower projects on the R side.
The S garden elevation of the SE wing is 2 storeys with attic, and is defined by a clock tower set back to the W end, water tower projecting to the E end, and a long range with a projecting tower offset to the L side, although this was not the original design, since until the early C20 the water tower was free-standing. The clock tower is 4 stages, of which the upper 2 stages project on a corbel table. The S face has a 2-light window in the lower stage and two 2-light windows above. In the 3rd stage are 2-light windows in the S and N faces, while the upper stage has single windows flanked by narrow slits in the S and N faces. The W face has a round clock face flanked by narrow slits. An octagonal stack is concealed behind an embattled parapet. A stair turret is on the SE side with a single small stair light, to the R of which is a full-height canted bay window with a gabled dormer behind an openwork parapet. Next R is a projecting 3-stage tower with a crow-stepped gable reminiscent of Scots baronial style. The doorway is on the W side with boarded door and hood mould. The S and W faces have plain windows in the middle stage. The upper stage projects slightly, has cusped windows in the E and W faces, while the S face has a tablet dated 1881 in the gable. Further R are 2 windows with casements flanking 2 small 2-light mullioned windows, 4 windows incorporating casements in the upper storey and 5 gabled and scrolled dormers. At the R end is a single-bay 3-storey link added by 1914 to link the original SE wing to the water tower. In the lower storey is a passage under an elliptical brick arch. The upper storeys have small casement windows under hoods.
The water tower at the SE end is Italianate in influence, is of 4 banded stages. The lower stage has a boarded S door with plain windows above in the middle stages. Below the upper stage are tablets with the dates 1880 on the S side, 1881 on the E side and placed above a volute capital on the N side. The castellated upper stage has a blind arcade of rock-faced stone projecting on a corbel table, of 3x7 bays. The E side has a single-storey lean-to. The W side is the through passage, with a doorway at the S end and two 2-light windows. It leads to the E side of the main block where there is a single-storey early C20 service wing. It has a Tudor-headed doorway set back at the L end, and two 3-light windows and a further Tudor-headed doorway. Further R are a plainer doorway and 2-light window under an open trefoil parapet and with a diagonal buttress to the NE angle. The return wall has a 4-light window with cusped lights that abuts the E elevation of the entrance wing. This has a 3-light window in its projecting lower storey and a 3-light and 2-light window to upper and attic storeys.