Fir Tree Grange

Fir Tree Grange, originally known as Smelt House, is a house, now used as a hostel, dating to circa 1846, with a billiard room wing added in 1883. The building is constructed of small blocks of coursed squared sandstone with an ashlar plinth, tooled-and-margined dressings, and quoins. The roof is of graduated stone flags with stone gable copings and a crest, though many of the ridge tiles are missing. The building is in an L-shape with two storeys and four bays, designed in a modified early 17th-century style. A Tudor-arched door with sidelights, beneath a drip mould, is at the right-hand side. Windows have varying numbers of lights set in double-chamfered raised surrounds with decorative ears, feet, and middle blocks, and ground-floor drip moulds. The steep roof has two-light windows in three gabled dormers, with moulded gable copings. Kneelers are topped with ball finials, and the dormer finials are shaped like reversed hearts. Three tall ridge chimneys have conjoined stacks with cornices and blocking courses. A saddle-back tower rises over the rear entrance on the right return. An external stack on the left return displays a date of 1511, which may refer to an earlier building on the site.

Inside, the close-string dogleg stair features a broad ramped grip handrail with heart pendants and ball finials on the newels. Built-in court cupboards are found in two principal ground-floor rooms. Gothic-style panelled doors are used throughout. Two high-quality Jacobean-style chimney pieces are in the ground-floor rooms to the left of the entrance and at the rear. The hall floor is tiled with Minton tiles, and there is painted glass in the hall window above the front door.