Scholefield House

Scholefield House is a high-status vernacular house dating from 1617, located on Scholefield Lane in Nelson. The building demonstrates the sub-division and reformation that occurred across several centuries: it originated as a single dwelling, was subdivided into two in the 19th century, and was reformed back into a single dwelling in the late 20th century.

The house is constructed of coursed squared sandstone with ashlar sandstone dressings, coped gables, ashlar ridge and gable stacks, and a stone slated roof. It has an irregular plan form that incorporates an early 17th-century two-bay end lobby entrance plan, later modified and extended on its north side, with further alterations and additions from the later 17th century and remodelling in the 18th century.

The south front elevation presents two storeys over four bays. An advanced two-storey gabled porch to the left features a moulded surround and a deep painted lintel bearing the inscription "1617 C A: A E: C.E." Above this sits a moulded string and a three-light ovolo-moulded mullioned window with a hood mould and label stops. The main range contains an eight-light hall window and, further right, two three-light windows to the ground floor, all with chamfer mullions and hood moulds. The first floor has three three-light windows.

The rear elevation has been substantially remodelled and extended, with a tall transomed Venetian window positioned left of centre within a wide right-hand gable. To the left are two glazing bar sashes (three over six panes), one to each floor, with flush ashlar surrounds. Further left stands a lower narrow gable containing a doorway with a 20th-century glazed door and a first-floor sash window of six over six panes.

The west side elevation shows a former four-light window that was altered to form a doorway and two-light opening, with a modified six-light mullioned window above.

The interior has been much remodelled but retains clear evidence of the early plan form. Exposed early fabric is now visible, including exposed chamfered ceiling beams and joists.

On the ground floor, a massive quoined and chamfered doorway leads from the porch into the house. A 19th-century stick baluster secondary stair, introduced when the house was subdivided, occupies the position of the former heck of the original hearth. Beyond the stair is a room containing the cantilevered end of a spine beam formerly seated on a bressumer of the former firehood. A further doorway with a surround matching that from the porch leads to a remodelled rear room. To the east of this doorway, within the same wall, sits the western half of a massive hearth featuring a substantial springer stone and chamfered voussoirs. This hearth was concealed until the late 20th-century alterations, having been damaged when a doorway was created to connect this room southward. This opening leads into the 18th-century stair hall, which contains a sophisticated stone cantilever stair. The east end room features a late 20th-century hearth.

On the first floor, a panelled archway from the stair is a late 20th-century addition but features wide oak floorboards and deep window reveals with cavetto and ovolo mouldings. A massive chamfered and stopped doorway surround on the north wall opens into the east end room.

The initials "C.A." on the porch lintel refer to Christopher Aspden, a clothier and yeoman who purchased Scholefield in 1599 and sold it to Lawrence Ormerod in 1624. In the 1660s, Ormerod's hearth tax assessment recorded four hearths. The house was subdivided in the 1880s. Despite subsequent phases of alteration and remodelling, the building retains much surviving early fabric, including evidence of a smoke hood and the hearth at the centre of the early end lobby entrance plan.