Rockcliffe House

Rockcliffe House is a large house dating from 1891, designed by Smith and Cross of Rochdale for J.H. Maden, and now divided into two dwellings. It is constructed of ashlar with a hipped slate roof and two chimney stacks on each side wall. The building is arranged in a "T" shape, with a square main block of three by three bays connected to a rectangular service wing at the rear.

The main house is two storeys high and symmetrical, designed in a classical style. It features pilasters, a cornice, and a balustraded parapet topped with urns. The windows are sash windows without glazing bars. A pedimented centre section projects slightly and incorporates a square porch with fluted Composite columns, dentilled cornices, and a balustraded balcony adorned with urns. The doorway within the porch has panelled pilasters with a round-headed arch. A window on the first floor of this section has its own elaborate cornice. Flanking bays have ground floor canted bay windows with carved aprons and balustraded parapets, while first-floor windows are topped with pediments.

The right return wall includes pilasters creating a wide central bay at ground floor containing a pilastered doorway flanked by windows and a first-floor window with a carved entablature and segmental pediment, flanked by fielded panels. Narrower outer bays have a single ground floor window each, and a coved niche with an urn on a semi-circular table to the first floor. The left return wall (facing the garden) has three windows on each floor. A canted bay window and a pedimented window are offset to the left of the centre, with matching pedimented windows at ground floor, and cornices to the remaining first-floor windows. A carved plinth runs below the ground-floor windows.

Inside, a dog-legged staircase has a semi-circular winding pattern and decorative iron balusters. A particularly elaborate moulded plaster cornice and ceiling rose are found in the front-right ground floor room, originally the dining room.