Clifton House

Clifton House is a large house, now a museum, dating to 1783. It was commissioned for Joshua Walker by John Carr, with contemporary interior features by John Platt. The house is constructed of ashlar sandstone with a graduated slate roof. It is two storeys high, comprising five bays across the front and six bays in total, with a symmetrical facade. The front features a slight, three-bay projection topped with a pediment. A plinth runs along the base. An open stone porch with paired Doric columns supports an entablature with a mutule cornice; a panelled double door, with an overlight, sits within, flanked by sash windows linked by a sill band. A first-floor band and a sill band incorporate sections of blind balustrade below the sash windows. A Doric Venetian window is above the porch. A dentil cornice runs along the top of the house, and the hipped roof is punctuated by symmetrically-placed corniced ashlar stacks with upswept flues. The rear of the house features a two-storey canted bay with three sashes to each floor, with sashes also to the outer bays, mirroring the front facade. The left return is similar to the front, while the right return incorporates a service wing rebuilt around 1973 (not part of the listing) and includes a doorway with projecting quoins and a dated lintel, alongside a tripartite kitchen window.

The interior retains a well-preserved decorative scheme from the 18th century. A marble fireplace is in the entrance hall. The inner entrance hall has marble paving and a cantilevered marble stair by John Platt, circa 1784, now supported on cast-iron columns and beams. The stair has a delicate wrought-iron balustrade with an inlaid wreathed handrail. Doorcases are adorned with a frieze of fluting flanked by festooned urns. The stair landing is lit by four side-wall lunettes, each above round-arched recesses with an impost band and archivolts, topped with an enriched Doric frieze. The oval dining room to the rear includes an Ionic side-wall fireplace by Wolstenholme of York, a moulded dado rail, elaborate architraves, a gilded frieze and cornice. The drawing room to the rear left has a Wolstenholme fireplace and painted ceiling decoration from around 1840, which has been restored; veneered eight-panel doors lead into a library with a good fireplace and a coved ceiling with a central acanthus feature. The servants’ stair has a plain iron balustrade and a wooden handrail. Marble shelves are in the pantry. A first-floor Venetian window has fluted wooden inner columns. Three etched-glass panels at the end of a first-floor corridor display the Walker family arms. The house was owned by the Walker family until the estate was sold in 1860. It was purchased by Rotherham Corporation in 1891 and is now used as a museum.