Ellesmere House

Ellesmere House is a large house dating to the late 16th century, with substantial extensions and alterations in the late 17th and mid-19th centuries. The house is timber-framed, with plaster infill and some decorative pargetting, and later red and white brick extensions, some of which have been colourwashed. The roofs are covered in plain tiles and glazed pantiles.

The original core of the house is a two-bay hall, to which a former parlour bay and stack were added to the left. The service end was rebuilt in the 19th century as a parlour cross range, forming an "L" shape on the plan, with further additions to the rear. The house now has two and a half storeys and attics. The main entrance is now on the right side of a mid-19th century addition: it comprises six fielded panels, a semi-circular fanlight set within a round-headed architrave, a flat-headed porch with a round arch, recessed panels, inpost blocks, a cornice and a blocking course. To the left of the entrance is a break in the plinth, suggesting a former cross-passage entrance, now replaced by a window. There are several two- and three-light transomed casement windows dating to the 19th century, along with some panelled, herringbone pargetting, and an eaves cornice. Two gabled dormers, each with two lights and leaded panes, are also present. A large axial ridge stack has been rebuilt between the hall and the former parlour end.

The left gable end has a scattering of casements, including two early leaded lights in the attic. The steeply pitched roof displays exposed purlins and bargeboards. Behind the left bay is a pantiled catslide roof over an early lean-to outshut with a rear entrance. A two-storey wing extends behind the stack, featuring a two-light leaded window in its outer return. The rear gable end is constructed of 19th-century brickwork, with a ground-floor 20-pane sash window with a moulded flush frame and a segmental head, and a first-floor recessed 16-pane sash window. A shorter, gabled wing from the 19th century is located to the rear of the hall bays, featuring a two-thirds glazed door, a ground-floor 20-pane sash window, and a first-floor segmental-headed tripartite sash window.

The mid-19th century parlour range has a colourwashed brick gable end with moulded kneelers leading to a coped shallow gable parapet incorporating an internal stack. The right return to the garden presents a symmetrical three-bay, two-storey facade: this includes segmental bow windows, central glazed doors with fanlights, flanking four-by-four pane sashes, all recessed with blind boxes and offset plinths, and rendered cornices to the flat heads. On the first floor are eight-by-four pane sashes flanking a six-by-three pane sash. The eaves are blocked and boarded. An internal stack rises to a parapet on the rear. The inner return to the rear has a catslide roof over a lean-to addition.

The interior of the hall features a cross axial binding beam with double roll mouldings in cavetto profiles, stop-roll moulded joists, a reset brattished beam across the former upper end of the hall, and a former parlour now serving as the service end, featuring an axial chamfered binding beam. A staircase abuts the stack, and the first floor has stop-chamfered cross axial binding beams. Framing is largely concealed, and butt-purlin roofs cover the early range. The 19th-century addition has simple plasterwork, a segmental arch over the staircase with slat balusters, and a moulded ramped handrail. The house sits within a partly moated site.