The Old House

This is a substantial brick house, dating from around 1680 to 1700, with a later 18th-century addition to the rear. It is located in Market Drayton, Shropshire. The house is built of red brick with a plain tile roof. It has two storeys and an attic, with a basement below. The front features a plinth, a decorative band around the building, a painted wooden eaves cornice, and brick end stacks integrated into the gable ends. There are two dormers with triangular pediments and wooden-framed metal casement windows with leaded glazing. The front has a 2:1:2 bay arrangement, with 8-pane sash windows visible behind exposed window boxes and with gauged brick heads, some of which are decorative. A central break in the front elevation rises above the cornice, topped with a semi-circular gable and an attic window with an exposed box and decorative band. Segmental-headed basement windows are also visible. The front door has six raised and fielded panels, a fanlight, and a wooden doorcase from the early 19th century with fluted pilasters, an entablature with lattice ornamentation, and a triangular pediment. A flight of seven semicircular steps made of grey sandstone leads to the front door. The rear has a three-storey section and a hipped dormer with a moulded cornice. A late 18th-century rear wing is adjoined to the main block and features two decorative bands and a brick stack. A segmental-headed sash window and a leaded attic cross window are visible on the rear.

Inside, the house retains significant features from around 1680 to 1700. An oak staircase has a dog-leg design with landings, a closed string, turned balusters, a moulded handrail, and moulded square newel posts, extending up to the attic. A ground-floor room, now part of the entrance hall, once had a corner fireplace with a bolection-moulded wooden surround. Another ground-floor room retains largely original features from the late 17th century, including bolection-moulded oak panelling, a dado rail, a moulded cornice, a fireplace with a 20th-century bolection surround, windows with panelled reveals and seats, six-panelled doors with L-shaped hinges and bolection surrounds. The first-floor landing has imitation bolection panelling, and a bedroom has oak panelling, a dado rail, a deep cornice, and a plain fireplace surround. The attic contains panelled doors. The basement includes a former kitchen with a large open fireplace and a former scullery with a sink. The rear wing’s kitchen has an open fireplace with a wooden lintel, 18th-century panelled doors, and three cupboards with shaped heads and drawers below. It is noted that the sashes in the second bay from the left appear to have always been dummy windows, as they are obscured by internal walls.