Buckley Hill Farmhouse

Buckley Hill Farmhouse is a 17th-century house located on Lumb Lane in Droylsden. It is constructed of English garden wall bond brick and has a 20th-century tile roof. The farmhouse features a three-unit plan with two storeys and an attic storey. The first bay was rebuilt in the late 19th century. A band on the first floor includes courses of diagonally set bricks, and there are raised lozenge and square panels in the brickwork on all sides. The entrance in the first bay has a square-cut stone surround. There are two ground floor and three first floor windows, all with stone sills, 20th-century casements, flat heads below elliptical brick arches, and continuous hoodmoulds made from shaped bricks. A fire-window between the second and third bays has been blocked. The farmhouse has a distinctive appearance with a series of three gables on both the front and rear. Each gable features a blocked two-light mullion window under an elliptical brick arch and hoodmould, with a rendered square panel above. There are two rendered chimney stacks. The right side of the house has three windows, one of which is blocked with a mullion, another is a horizontally sliding sash, and the third is a 20th-century casement. A fourth window was removed in the 20th century to insert a bay window. The rear fenestration is similarly varied, but all windows remain within their original openings and retain brick hoodmoulds.

Inside, the farmhouse has an inglenook fireplace with a cambered bressumer beam and heck post. The cyma-moulded beams feature ogee stops, and both the beams and post have unusual carved corbels. There is a dogleg staircase with a closed string, oak splat balusters, and carved acorn finials on the newels. The interior generally retains original oak six-panel doors and features inlaid oak panelling in one of the first floor rooms. The tie-beam roof trusses have curved struts. This farmhouse is a well-preserved example of a large brick house that retains many original and unusual features. It was the residence of the Buckley family in 1618, as noted in J. Butterworth's "History of Ashton-under-Lyne."