Edlestow Hall Farmhouse

Edlestow Hall Farmhouse is a house of 16th-century or earlier origin, substantially remodelled and extended during the 17th, 18th and 20th centuries. It stands in Ashover and is constructed of coursed squared gritstone, massive in some areas, with ashlar dressings. The building rises from a plinth in places and features quoins, coped gables with moulded kneelers, ridge and gable chimneys, and stone slate roofs now covered with hessian and pitch.

The farmhouse comprises two linked ranges. The south-western range is earlier and lower; the north-eastern range is taller and now symmetrical, with a single 2-storey addition attached to its north-eastern end.

The south-east elevation of the main symmetrical range displays 2 storeys and 5 bays. A 2-storey gabled porch occupies the centre, featuring a wide moulded four-centred arched doorway that appears earlier than the range itself. The doorway now has 20th-century part-glazed doors. Above sits a rectangular window with irregularly shaped surrounds marked with incised margins delineating jambs, head and sill, the remainder of the surround flush with the surrounding masonry. Windows elsewhere on this elevation match this design, fitted with 19th-century glazing bar casements, some now replaced with 20th-century plastic replacements. The north-east side shows 2-light windows to the first floor above a single-light opening and a quoined doorway. A single bay attached to the north-east end has a 20th-century gabled single-storey porch and two 2-light casement windows in 20th-century stone surrounds, one window to each floor.

The south-west range comprises 3 bays, two of which are advanced in separate stages. The south-west end bay contains an altered or inserted 3-light chamfered mullioned window cutting through the plinth, with a 17th-century 3-light chamfered mullioned window above. The central bay was formerly a side wall stack but is now altered to form a double doorway beneath a plain lintel, with a single-light window above. Beyond a set-back in the side wall line sits a second advanced bay with a 3-light ground-floor window, both 19th-century work. A monopitch lean-to is set against the north-east gable wall.

The rear elevation is much altered but retains several 2-light chamfered mullioned windows, some with mullions intact. A 20th-century monopitch porch with a glazed front between massive mullion-pillars stands here. The lower range features 20th-century 3-light glazing bar casements and a re-set oeil-de-boeuf window at ground level. An advanced bay beneath a catslide roof projects at the south-west end.

The interior has been much altered. Mullioned window openings to a former end gable at the north-east end are now enclosed by a later bay. A 17th-century staircase with moulded handrail, turned balusters and a dog-gate at its head survives. Several modestly moulded 18th-century fire surrounds appear in bedrooms. The two bays at the south-west end are open to the roof, with a 20th-century gallery on the south-east side linking first-floor rooms at either end. Within this full-height room stands a transverse stack with massive plain corbels carrying a steeply cambered moulded hearth lintel, moved from its former position in the side wall where exposed sections of moulded jambs remain visible in wall plaster.