The Earl Of Strafford

The Earl of Strafford is a manor house, now functioning as a public house and restaurant. It dates from the late 16th century or early 17th century and was extensively rebuilt in the late 18th century, with renovations occurring around 1983-84. The building is constructed from irregularly-coursed sandstone rubble and features a stone slate roof, partially replaced by 20th-century tiles, along with brick stacks.

The structure has a three-bay, double-pile central block flanked by single-bay wings on either side and stands two storeys tall, with single-storey additions on the left return. The entrance front showcases quoins and includes an early 19th-century stone porch to the left of the central block, which has a bracketed cornice and a peaked blocking course. To the right, there are two windows, and above, three unequal 15-pane sash windows in square-faced surrounds. The left wing has a similar ground-floor window, while the right wing features an altered tripartite window that now has an inserted doorway in the widened left light, and another tripartite window on the first floor. The hipped roofs have end stacks, with a stack on the ridge of the left wing and one at the centre of the main block.

On the garden front, there are extensive traces of 16th or 17th-century work. To the right of the central block, there is an infilled Tudor-arched doorway beneath a blocked two-light, ovolo-moulded, mullioned window, both now altered by a 19th-century architrave leading to a glazed door and window opening. A first-floor band is truncated to the left by two three-light, ovolo-moulded mullioned windows with iron casements and leaded lights. Above these, there are two three-light mullioned and transomed stair windows with leaded lights that incorporate two stained glass heraldic emblems, one of which is badly damaged. To the right, there is an infilled ovolo-moulded surround along with two other similar surrounds that are now infilled and house sashes in square-faced surrounds.

Inside, the building retains some Tudor-arched ashlar doorways in the left wing. Historically, Lady Strafford, the third wife of the first Earl, lived here from 1641 until her death in 1688, along with her only daughter, Margaret, who died in 1681.