Oakeley House

Oakeley House is a farmhouse located in Lydham, dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, with some partial re-facing and additions from the 19th century. The building features a rendered timber frame with some rebuilding in limestone rubble, and includes a projecting painted stone gabled wing to the right. The roofs are slate, with the right side being half hipped. The structure has a T-plan layout, consisting of two framed bays on the north-east/south-west axis, likely remnants of a cross wing to a former open hall range to the south-east. To the right, there is one framed bay that serves as a baffle entry house, along with a cross wing that has two 17th-century framed bays and 19th-century additions at the front and rear.

The house is 1½ storeys high and features square panels in its framing, with decorative parallel framing visible in the internal gable end. A large rendered stone ridge stack is located above the door, which is off-centre to the right, and there is a rendered external end stack to the left. The front has four windows, with mid to late 19th-century wooden mullioned and transomed windows, and a 2-light casement in each floor of the right-hand cross wing. The entrance includes a six-panelled door situated between the second and third windows from the left, featuring glazed upper panels, a reeded architrave, and a porch supported by scrolled brackets and octagonal columns. At the rear, there is evidence of the junction between the probable former open hall range and the cross wing.

Inside, the jettied gable end of the probable former cross wing is visible between the second and third framed bays from the left, showcasing parallel diagonal framing and a moulded bressumer. A late 17th-century staircase features splat balusters, with those on the landing shaped to resemble twisted balusters, and a chamfered newel post topped with a polyhedral newel finial. The interior also includes chamfered fireplace lintels.