Elton House Rookery Nook The Rookery

Elton House and The Rookery, located at Rookery Nook in Adderbury, is a substantial house dating back to 1656, with significant restoration and extension work carried out in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The building is constructed of coursed squared marlstone with ashlar dressings, and has Stonesfield-slate roofs punctuated by ashlar stacks. It presents an L-shaped plan with a complex arrangement of extensions.

The main range features a symmetrical, five-gabled facade. A projecting porch is accessed by a Tudor-arched doorway with recessed spandrels and a hood mould, sheltering a simpler Tudor-arched doorway. Restored mullioned and transomed windows of 3 and 4 lights are featured on the ground and first floors; the 2-light mullioned gable windows are at least partly of 17th-century origin. The rear wing, returning to the right, has two 3-light stone-mullioned windows on both ground and first floors, accompanied by 2-light mullioned windows within the main gable and a smaller stone gable to the right, all with lattice glazing and labels, and likely dating to the 17th century. All gables are topped with parapets displaying projecting moulded kneelers, while the porch gable has a stone finial and incorporates the 1656 datestone. A chamfered plinth containing mullioned cellar windows extends to a lower seven-window section of the rear wing, featuring ovolo-moulded stone-mullioned windows of 2 and 3 lights, likely lowered but partly of 17th-century origin. The first floor of this section has 19th-century mullioned windows set within half-dormer gables. An attached single-storey range (Rookery Nook) also incorporates the plinth and has three 19th-century mullioned windows plus plain openings to the rear, potentially with 17th-century origins. Later extensions to the left of the main range (Elton House) are in a similar stone-mullioned and gabled style, but are irregular and include flat-roofed front projections with stone-balustraded parapets, mostly dating to the early 20th century, though incorporating a 17th-century range whose rear windows consist of ovolo-moulded mullions. The rear of The Rookery has undergone extensive early 20th-century alterations and is largely obscured.

The interior of The Rookery includes stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops, a Tudor-arched chamfered stone fireplace (likely re-set), and two fragmentary drawings on plaster. Elton House also features a similar fireplace, plus a more elaborate, moulded Tudor-arched fireplace with recessed spandrels, both probably re-used. Alterations from 1912 were undertaken by A.C. Martin of London.