Smethcote Manor

This is a farmhouse dating from the early and mid-17th century, with partial rebuilding in the mid-19th century. It is timber-framed with painted brick nogging on a red sandstone plinth, with a small section rebuilt in brick painted to resemble timber framing. The roof is slate-covered. The timber framing consists of small square panels, five from the sole plate to the wall plate, with long straight tension braces, alongside larger square panels, three from the sole plate to the wall plate, with short straight corner braces. The building has a T-plan, comprising a large baffle-entry range of two framed bays and a gabled cross wing of two framed bays.

The south front (facing the garden) features a large brick ridge stack positioned off-centre to the right, two gabled eaves dormers with two-light, small-paned casements, and a rooflight to the left. The windows are a mix of small-paned wooden casements from the 19th century and a more recent three-light, segmental-headed wooden casement with metal glazing. A boarded door is located between the first and second windows from the right, leading to a projecting late-19th century brick porch and outbuilding. The right-hand gable end shows a collar and tie-beam truss with queen struts and V-struts. The projecting cross wing to the left has an integral brick lateral stack and a collar and tie-beam truss with queen struts in the gable, along with a 20th-century three-light small-paned wooden casement on the first floor and a pair of ground-floor French casements. A set-back, one-storey-and-attic brick service wing is situated to the right.

The north front (facing the entrance) has two dormers. The hall range features 19th and 20th-century two- and three-light small-paned wooden casements, and a 20th-century door set within an early 19th-century doorcase consisting of pierced panelled pilaster strips and shaped brackets supporting a triangular pediment. The cross wing incorporates small-paned 2-light attic casements, likely 18th-century horizontal-sliding glazing bar sashes on the first floor, and a 20th-century two-light casement on the ground floor. A Sun Fire Insurance plate (No. 648143) is visible above the west door of the cross wing.

The interior features chamfered ceiling beams and cross-beams in the cross wing. There is a large open fireplace with a chamfered wooden lintel and an old dog-leg wooden staircase with rectangular balusters, including a winder leading to the attic.