Exterior
A Domestic-revival style former country house of 2 storeys and attic. Walls are snecked rock-faced stone with freestone dressings, under steep tile roofs on overhanging eaves and with prominent lead finials and rock-faced stone stacks. The main house forms a rectangular double-depth block which has separate roof spans for each elevation. Offset in the middle above the entrances, is a higher near-square lantern with bands of glazing in each face and a steep hipped roof with finial (bearing the date 1877) and weathervane. Windows are mainly 2-pane horned sashes in freestone surrounds, and the upper storey windows have a moulded sill band. Main elevations retain original cast-iron rainwater heads and downpipes with lozenge-pattern decoration.
The main entrance front faces SW and is asymmetrical of 7 unequal bays. The entrance is R of centre in bay 5, in the centre of a lower 2-storey section of 3 bays. It has a lean-to timber-framed half-glazed porch on a stone dwarf wall. It has turned angle posts, and moulded mullions and transoms to leaded glazing. Central double doors have boarded panels, and their mullioned overlight incorporates a central cusped circle. The bays R and L (4 and 6) have pairs of windows with replacement pivoting lights, and single windows above flanking a triple sash window over the porch. The wider gabled R end bay (bay 7) has 2 sash windows of 2 over 1 panes, flanking a central buttress. The 1st-floor oriel window is on freestone corbelling incorporating a foliage frieze. It has 2 segmental-headed sash windows, above which are 4 freestone mullioned panels with flowers in high relief. The oriel has a lean-to roof, above which the freestone gable is panelled with low-relief foliage and lozenge patterns and incorporating a round central panel. Bays 2 and 3 on the L side of the entrance section are higher, 2 storeys and attic, with gambrel roof over bay 3. Bay 3 has paired sash windows in ground and first floors, and paired sashes to an attic half-dormer under a lean-to roof against a set-back gable with disc-pattern freestone panel. Bay 2 is narrower, with single sash windows in ground and 1st floors, and attic skylight. The 1st bay is higher, wider and gabled, and balances the R end bay. It has a coped gable on moulded kneelers. Ground and 1st floor have 2 windows, and the attic has a 2-light mullioned window with sashes, beneath a pointed tympanum with freestone panelling of foliage and lozenges in similar style to bay 7, and moulded sill band with foliage stops.
The asymmetrical SE front is 4 unequal bays. It has a lean-to veranda against bays 3-4, on turned wooden posts on stone bases, and simple brackets. At the ends it has trusses with openwork tracery. The R end has stone steps. The central full-height canted bay window (bay 3) has replacement French doors and glazing in the ground floor. It has a wooden 3-light mullioned-and-transomed window to the 1st floor, which has leaded glazing above the transom. The bay window has a lean-to roof against a panelled gable with finial, similar to the freestone gables of the entrance front. Bay 1 has a replacement floor-length cross window, and bay 2 a glazed door (originally opening to the conservatory that is shown here on the 1889 Ordnance Survey), below 2-pane sash windows on the 1st floor. The ground-floor windows open to a former terrace. In the 4th bay is an external stack.
The NE front mirrors the SW front in its overall structure, although the details differ and there are only 2 bays in the lower entrance section. The 2-storey entrance section has a pointed arch with continuous chamfer and hood mould. It has a pair of contemporary wrought-iron gates with overthrow. Inside the porch is a boarded door with strap hinges, and side and overlights with wooden mullions and transoms and leaded coloured glass. Above, the entrance bay has 2 sash windows. The narrow bay on its L side has single sashes. The 1st bay is a broad full-height canted bay window with 2 sashes, under a steep hipped roof with ornate finial. The 4th and 5th bays have a higher roof line, with hipped roof over the 4th bay. In the ground floor bay 4 has a broad canted bay window with parapet and 2 sash windows. Above are 2 windows and a single window to a hipped half-dormer with moulded brick finial. Bay 5 has single windows and a similar half-dormer with finial. The wider gabled bay 6 has 2 windows in ground and 1st floors. Its 3-light mullioned attic window incorporates 8-pane sashes, under a pointed arch with hood mould and freestone panelled tympanum similar to those of the front elevation.
The NW side has 1-storey advanced wings. Above them, the main range has a central 3-light mullioned attic window with raised eaves, and a lean-to roof against a panelled freestone gable with finial. The 1-storey projections comprise 3 parallel 1-storey ranges, of which the central is higher, under a gambrel roof, and has 4 skylights in its SW roof slope. The SW front is 3 bays. It has an altered central bay, now the main entrance to council offices, with glazed doors and a high entrance canopy. The R-hand bay has 2 cross windows of frosted glass, under a steep timber-framed gable with incised sun and foliage patterns in the plaster, and with ridge tiles and moulded finial. The L-hand bay has 3-light mullioned and transomed window with fixed lights, with lean-to roof against a steep gable with raised eaves, moulded finial and ridge tiles (the gable may originally have been decorated similar to the R-hand bay but is now blank render). The opposite 3-window NE side has irregular fenestration. On the L side is a 3-light mullioned window incorporating 8-pane horned sashes. It is framed by a steep hipped roof with finial, subsidiary to a broader hipped roof with finials. Next R is a 2-light broad mullioned window with replacement glazing, and similar 1-light window to the R end. A stack is L of centre.