Grove House

Grove House

A house built around 1872, probably for the agent of Lord Richard Grosvenor. The building was extended before 1887 and updated during the first decade of the 20th century, with later minor alterations including the addition of a 20th-century conservatory.

The house is constructed of Forest marble limestone and sandstone with stone dressings and hipped slate roofs. There are two stone ridge stacks with decorated tops; the remaining stacks have moulded tops and are positioned down the slope of the roof. The outbuildings, situated to the west and south-west, are built of red brick, local stone rubble and timber under pitched roofs of slates, plain tiles and corrugated sheeting. The garden walls are stone rubble.

The plan is asymmetrical. The principal range is roughly square with two storeys and cellars. The principal rooms are arranged in an L-shaped plan around the main staircase. To the rear is an attached two-storey service wing, and at right angles to this is a late 19th-century ancillary wing orientated west-east, together forming an L-shaped plan.

The exterior features string courses at the levels of the ground-floor window heads and the first-floor sills, running along the principal fronts and at first-floor level to the rear service wing. Deep bracketed eaves run across the building. The windows are tripartite, paired and single two-pane sashes; those to the late 19th-century wing are horned, and most have shoulder-arched or plain lintels. There are also small single lights grouped in threes and fours.

The north entrance front has two bays, with the left-hand bay breaking forwards. A doorway at ground-floor level (now infilled) served as a separate entrance to the office and study at the north-east corner, allowing callers on estate business to avoid disturbing the family home. At first-floor level is a tripartite window. To the right is a projecting single-storey porch from the Edwardian alterations with a moulded cornice and three arched openings: a central principal entrance with diagonal plank door and semi-circular fanlight, and windows to either side with leaded, coloured glass. Above the porch is a first-floor tripartite window with Carnarvon arches.

The east garden elevation has three regularly-spaced arched windows and an arched window of three sections with colonnettes and carved capitals under a semi-circular arch set with three roundels at ground-floor level, and three single and tripartite first-floor windows, all with shoulder-arched lintels. The south elevation, also facing the garden, has an arched ground-floor opening with paired doors and a fanlight, paired doors and a small stone balcony with pierced decoration supported on stepped stone brackets, and full-height canted bay windows to the left end. The left return has paired windows to the ground floor and a tripartite window above.

The north elevation of the two-storey service wing has at ground-floor level, from left to right: a tripartite window with relieving arch, a doorway with half-glazed door and light over, a large flat-arched opening of three bi-fold doors under a flat-arched lintel, and a further doorway to the corner. The first floor has two paired windows. At the junction between the two wings is a first-floor timber and glazed oriel.

The late 19th-century wing has first-floor windows that are all paired sashes. On the east elevation, the ground floor has a tall blocked doorway with a tripartite window under a relieving arch to each side. To the rear (west), the left-hand bays contain two former carriage openings with 20th-century timber garage doors under timber lintels, and to the right are tripartite and paired windows. The south elevation of the service range has a doorway to the left end, four small single lights, and a single window; the first floor has tripartite and paired windows. A modern conservatory has been added to this elevation.

The interior retains a substantially intact plan-form, with an early 20th-century entrance lobby leading to a hall which has an archway through to the inner hall containing the main open-well staircase lit by a lantern (replaced in the early 21st century). The reception rooms and principal bedrooms on the first floor are arranged around the staircase. There is no access between the two wings at ground-floor level, and two service staircases provide access to the secondary and servants' bedrooms. The fittings and materials are of good quality, mostly chosen from manufacturers' catalogues.

The fireplaces date from the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th-century refurbishment, with a variety of designs including timber, cast-iron and marble surrounds, marble and tile insets, and retain their grates. The windows of the ground-floor principal rooms have vertical sliding shutters, except for the French doors in the dining room which have folding shutters. Both the drawing room and dining room have moulded oak-framed panels to the walls. The Lincrusta paper below the dado to the inner hall, staircase and first-floor landing, and the electric light fittings in some rooms probably date from the early 20th-century refurbishment. The four-panel doors are a mix of mahogany and pine, and skirting boards remain throughout. There are polychromatic floor tiles to the hallways, service corridors and some service rooms, and wooden floors to the ground-floor principal rooms and bedrooms. Many of the service rooms retain shelves and cupboards; the servants' hall has a cast-iron range; and the early 20th-century wall-mounted electricity switchgear and an internal water pump survive.