Middridge Grange Farmhouse

Middridge Grange Farmhouse is a large farmhouse dating to around 1600, with significant alterations and additions made around 1690, 1720, 1850, and 1897. It is constructed of partly-rendered coursed sandstone rubble, with Welsh slate and pantiled roofs, the latter featuring stone-flagged eaves. Brick chimney stacks have been rebuilt. The house originally comprised a U-plan but now appears as a double-range plan following the demolition of a left cross-wing around 1850 and the addition of a rear range around 1897.

The entrance front has two gables; the left part dates to around 1720 with two bays, and the right wing to around 1600. Quoins mark the ends and the junction between the wings. A central partly-glazed six-panel door is set within a broken-pedimented stone doorcase featuring an eared architrave and enriched consoles. The ground floor windows are four-pane sashes, with replaced casements above. The centre window is set within a narrow architrave; blocked two-light mullioned windows are present in both attics. Coped gables, shaped kneelers, an off-centre roof valley to the right, and end stacks are visible. The right return has flush quoins and shows evidence of altered and blocked openings, including original door and window jambs and a fragment of hoodmould. The left side has late 17th-century cross windows beneath dripmoulds, while the right side has replaced windows in flush surrounds. The steeply-pitched roof is pantiled on the left with slightly-swept flagged eaves, and slate on the right. One external end chimney has been truncated. The mutilated left return, originally the inner wall of the demolished wing, displays a splayed first-floor window opening. A steeply-pitched pantiled roof tops this section. A two-storey, two-bay addition to the rear, dating to around 1897, forms an outshut.

The interior of the right wing contains three rooms with features from around 1720, including one with panelling, doors and window shutters, and a top entablature with a pulvinated frieze. A blocked, chamfered stone doorway is located behind the panelling. Two upstairs rooms also feature similar panelling and bolection-moulded wood chimney-pieces with corniced mantels. The late 19th-century addition to the left rear is considered to be of less special interest.

Historically, the house was the home of Colonel Anthony Byerley (died 1667), who commanded a regiment known as "Byerley's Bulldogs" during the English Civil War. It was also the home of the first Arab horse, "The Byerley Turk," from which all British racing bloodstock is descended. The house was reported as derelict at the time of the original survey.