Alder House

Alder House is a house dating from 1697, attributed to Ralph Astley, and is designated a building of group value. It is constructed of hammer-dressed stone with a stone slate roof. The original house comprises three bays by three bays, with three storeys, to which 19th-century additions have been made to the left and rear. Three sides of the house are defined by triple gables. The central door is sheltered by a pitched canopy with a carved stone ogee-shaped gable supported on enriched brackets. Rebuilt front and right walls, along with the majority of windows on those elevations, incorporate 19th-century buttresses on either side of the door, dated 1888 TM and displaying a coat of arms. The windows generally have two to six lights and double-chamfered stone mullions and hoodmoulds. In each gable on the side elevations and the central gable on the front elevation is a stepped three-light window with arched lights and stepped hoodmoulds, characteristic of the Yorkshire tradition. A lead rainwater trough with a cast grape vine pattern runs along two sides of the building. The 19th-century additions were executed in a similar style using matching materials. Chimney stacks were rebuilt in the 20th century. The interior is arranged with two rooms in depth and two rooms in width. A dogleg staircase rises to the top of the house, having a closed string with a pulvinated frieze, turned balusters, a deeply moulded handrail, and capped newel posts with recessed arched panels. Several rooms retain moulded fire surrounds, one with a re-set carved oak overmantel. Ovolo-moulded floor beams are also present. Many 17th-century panelled doors remain within eared architraves featuring carved rosettes. One door is 19th century and has inlaid decoration. The house is a significant survival with notable and unusual features both internally and externally.