Grange Farmhouse Grange Farmhouse Including Mounting Steps And Area Walls To North And South

Grange Farmhouse, Cheddleton

Farmhouse of 1499, remodelled in 1692–7 (dendrochronologically dated), extended in the 18th century and altered around the late 19th century. Built in coursed, dressed and squared sandstone with plain clay tile roofs. Stone-coped gable-ends feature kneelers and ball-finials. Stone axial stack with chamfered shafts rises from the main house, with a stone gable-end stack serving the rear wing.

The house follows a three-room plan with the low service end to the west, a central hall with axial stack at the high end accessed via a lobby entrance, and a parlour at the eastern end. The original 1499 hall was open to the roof, with a smoke-hood at the high end probably inserted whilst the hall remained open. The low service end was unheated and possibly also open to the roof. Around 1692–7, the house was largely rebuilt in stone, the hall was floored over, and the parlour and chamber above were added with fireplaces backing onto the hall's smoke-hood. The wing behind the service end is probably 18th-century, whilst the outshut on its left side and the wing in front of the parlour are likely 19th-century additions.

Externally, the building is single-storey with attic storeys. The asymmetrical south front has four windows, with two four-light chamfered stone mullion windows to the left beneath a cavetto-moulded stringcourse stepped over them, a chamfered doorway to the right of centre with a plank door, a small window above to the right, and a gable-ended wing projecting from the right. Two 19th-century ashlar gabled dormers with ball-finials stand on the left. The right-hand gable-end displays stone mullion windows with a stringcourse that continues around the rear, where further stone mullion windows are visible. A gable-ended wing rises on the right side of the rear elevation with an outshut to its right.

The interior preserves significant medieval and post-medieval features. The service room at the west end contains chamfered cross-beams. The parlour at the east end has a chamfered axial beam. The hall features a large fireplace with a huge chamfered timber bressumer displaying broach stops, with a deep inner chamfer also finished with broach stops. An inserted floor contains cyma-and-fillet moulded axial beams with hollow stops and stop-chamfered joists. At the low end of the hall stands a scratch-moulded plank and muntin screen against the tie-beam of a cruck-truss showing evidence of a shouldered arch doorway. The full-cruck-truss has a small yoke at the apex and is a closed truss with smoke-blackening visible on the hall side only. The original infill survives, the collar is halved onto the cruck blades, and the purlins are trenched into the backs of the blades with packing-pieces and spurs. A timber-framed fire-hood remains visible at the other end of the hall chamber. The parlour chamber has a small chamfered stone fireplace. A heavy wooden door-frame separates the hall chamber from the parlour chamber. A stop-chamfered ceiling beam is present in the rear wing. Some 18th and 19th-century joinery and details are missing.

The property includes circa 19th-century stone rubble garden area walls to north and south, both with plain stone coping and small monolithic stone gate-posts. The front wall incorporates stone mounting steps against a gate-post.