Pelton House

Pelton House

A detached house of the early to mid-18th century, substantially altered in the early 1980s and subsequently. Built from hand-made brick with ashlar dressings, the rear and side elevations are rendered and painted, beneath a Welsh slate roof.

The house follows a double-pile rectangular plan and stands within large grounds, formerly more extensive. The original entrance and drive approach from the north off Front Street, though the principal garden front faces south.

The south-facing garden elevation displays two storeys across six bays. A chamfered rubble plinth with tooled quoins supports the brickwork, which has been heavily repointed. The original entrance, positioned in the second bay to the left of centre, features an eared bolection-style moulded stone doorcase beneath a moulded cornice. Tall window openings with flush lintels and projecting stone sills occupy the ground and first floors; all windows have replacement 15-pane casements. The pitched roof has multiple modern roof lights, renewed gable copings, stone end stacks, and a corniced ridge stack. The east and west returns are rendered and blank.

The north-facing rear elevation is fully rendered. It contains a round-headed stair window, and at ground floor right an inserted entrance with a six-panel door. Four first-floor windows and one ground-floor window have replacement 12-pane casements. A pair of tall windows have 15-pane replacement casements. A 20th-century bow window has been inserted. A stone plaque set into the left end of the plinth reads: PELTON HOUSE / Renovated by Frank Tiffen / 1982.

Internally, all doors, cornicing, skirting boards, and architraves are late-20th-century replacements. The original south entrance opens into a full-length room spanning the entire south range, the original partitions having been removed. This room features a late-20th-century plaster cornice and ceiling roses, and a later-19th-century stone chimneypiece at the east end, flanked by original alcoves with heads modified to round arches. An original round-headed opening through the central spine wall leads to the stair hall and spinal passage.

The original dog-leg staircase consists of two flights and a landing with a closed string, pulvinated frieze, panelled newel posts, and a moulded handrail ramped at the newels; the balusters are renewed. A small basement is accessible from the right of the staircase. To the left of the passage is a former kitchen, now stripped of fixtures and fittings. At the right end of the spinal passage stands a second rear room with a Frosterley marble 19th-century chimneypiece, flanked by original alcoves with modified round-arched heads.

On the first floor, the central spinal passage provides access to three principal bedrooms on its south side, each created by inserted lightweight partitions. The north side of the passage contains a fourth bedroom at the northeast corner and a smaller room at the northwest corner, now used as a bathroom with 20th-century fittings.

The original staircase extends upwards into the attic space, which retains most of its original Queen post roof structure, slightly modified in places. Five trusses are present; the easternmost is a replacement, and the other four bear notched assembly marks and triple purlins. Modern lightweight panels have been inserted into the interstices of three trusses to create a landing, a small kitchen with modern fittings at the west end, and a larger room at the east end.

A 20th-century garage, a pair of lean-to buildings, and a 20th-century flat-roofed range of outbuildings are not considered to be of special architectural or historic interest.