The Grove

THE GROVE

A house, now a residential home, built in 1890 for Joseph Cliff, an iron and steel manufacturer and owner of the Frodingham Iron Works. The building was incorrectly marked as Station Road on the Ordnance Survey map. It was constructed in the Jacobethan style and represents one of the largest and most impressive houses built from local limestone in the area.

The exterior is faced in rock-faced limestone ashlar with smooth ashlar dressings. The roof is covered in Westmorland slate, with copper and lead covering to the lighting dome. The building follows an approximately rectangular, double-depth plan running north to south, containing two rooms on the south garden front with an entrance porch and hall, east and west reception rooms with canted bays, and kitchen and service areas with a courtyard to the rear.

The south front displays two storeys across three bays in a balanced asymmetrical composition. A chamfered plinth runs along the base. The central feature is a cross-mullioned window, flanked to the right by a full-height square bay with a 4-light mullion and transom window and single lights to the sides, and to the left by a projecting full-height canted bay with single transomed lights. The first floor contains a 2-light central window and 4-light and single-light windows to the bays, all positioned beneath moulded string courses. All windows feature glazing bars and chamfered ashlar mullions set in wave-moulded reveals. A coped embattled parapet rises above the canted bay, while the square bay is topped with a parapet decorated with carved foliate relief panels. The eaves overhang with exposed rafter-ends. Coped gables with shaped kneelers surmounted by ball finials flank the composition. Projecting cornice end stacks with ashlar offsets and diamond-shafted chimneys rise from the roofline, with a corniced axial stack at the centre.

The east principal entrance front forms the right return and extends two storeys, featuring eight first-floor windows. A projecting ground-floor section with a canted bay sits to the right. A flight of steps with an ashlar balustrade and square piers decorated with relief panels and moulded caps leads to the entrance. The projecting single-storey canted porch has a chamfered plinth and is crowned with a moulded 4-centred arch with hood-mould. The entrance features a 2-fold panelled door with a Gothic overlight. Decorative arrow slits and winged gargoyles mark the angles of the porch, which is topped with a coped embattled parapet bearing a carved achievement in relief with a ball finial above, supported by open scrolls. A single-storey section to the right displays mullion and transom windows with string courses and coped embattled parapets adorned with gargoyles. To the left, the parapet carries carved relief panels and a datestone.

The far-right section, facing the courtyard, displays twin gables with oculi. The roof to the central range is hipped to the right with a wrought-iron ball finial. A large lighting dome with a splayed base dominates the composition, beneath which sit two 3-light cinquefoiled windows with leaded lights, set under a moulded cornice. The dome itself is splayed and domed with a weathervane finial.

The west front features a buttress containing a foundation stone inscribed to Mrs Joseph Cliff, dated May 17, 1890, supporting a first-floor oriel stair-window with a corbelled base, mullioned lights, and a coped embattled parapet.

The interior retains original decorative details. The hall features a panelled dado and an oak staircase with turned balusters, moulded frieze decorated with putti, strapwork and foliate motifs, and a large ornate fireplace with a shafted and corniced chimneypiece. An alcove with a keyed round arch, relief panels, and monogrammed cartouches sits beneath the moulded cornice. A large carved oak chimneypiece adorns the north-east room, while Adam-style marble chimneypieces are found in the south rooms. Moulded plasterwork friezes and decorated ceilings complete the interior scheme.

The building underwent internal alterations during the 20th century.