Bardsey Grange And Congreve Cottage Including Wall Attached To Rear

Bardsey Grange and Congreve Cottage, including the wall attached to the rear, is a large farmhouse that has been converted into two dwellings. The building is dated 1717, but it may have a 17th-century inner core and a mid to late 18th-century extension. The windows were altered in the early to mid-19th century. The structure is made of coursed rubble, partly rendered, with hammer-dressed stone in the extension, and features a red tile roof and brick stacks. It has a T-shaped layout with a three-cell through-passage plan, a rear wing, and an additional cell on the right end.

There are five first-floor windows, and quoins are visible at the junction with the added cell. The doorway features a mid-20th-century gabled stone porch with a small window above. To the left, there are two windows with another window above; to the right, there are two windows with the same arrangement above. All windows have monolithic lintels, projecting sills, and 4-pane sashes in flush-wood architraves. The added cell has a doorway with a monolithic lintel to the left of a single bay of sash windows. The building has gable stacks and two additional ridge stacks, with decorative tile ridges.

At the rear, the addition has a doorway with a margin-dressed lintel and a narrow window above, to the right of a window with a keyed lintel, and another above with a monolithic lintel. The wing breaks forward and has a gable stack, with a blocked doorway featuring tie stone jambs and a dated lintel to the left of a sash window and an inserted doorway with a sash above. The main house, set back, has three bays of windows at the front. Attached to the left corner of the rear wing is a wall, likely from the 18th century, made of large dressed sandstone blocks with ashlar coping, pierced by a gateway with margin-dressed piers that have curved tops.

Baron Thorpe, who served as treasurer to Oliver Cromwell around 1649, lived part of each year at Bardsey Grange until his death in 1665, and he is buried in the Church of All Hallows. The house is also notable as the birthplace of William Congreve, who was baptized in the nearby church on February 10, 1669, and is buried in Westminster Abbey.