The Grey House

The Grey House is a house dating to circa 1678, originally built for Charles Ridley, gentleman. It has early 19th-century additions and 20th-century alterations. The house is constructed of irregularly banded limestone rubble with stone dressings and quoins, featuring double Roman tiled roofs and a central ridge stack. It is L-shaped, with a lobby entry and has two and a half storeys and five windows. The windows are cross windows with hollow-chamfered mullions and transoms, with leaded lights and a continuous hood mould over the ground and first floors.

The central portico has a flat roof with twisted columns, plain capitals with pendant pegs, and similar engaged columns to the rear. A bolection-moulded doorcase features a floating cornice. The parapet includes two panels, a blank shield, a small pediment, and a cornice. Three symmetrical gables rise to ridge height, each with a smaller two-light casement, a hood mould, a datestone with a long cill, and an oval bull's eye window. Wrought iron finials and four central diagonal stacks are present.

The left return has two two-light cellar windows, along with two cross windows at ground and first floor, all with returned hood moulds. A blocked window is in the gable, with a bull's eye window above. A single-storey block, added in the early 19th century, features a canted bay for a porch, two single-light windows, and two cross windows at ground floor, along with a door with raised fillets and a small gable with a blank shield, under a hipped roof. The right return has a centrally projecting, slightly lower gabled wing, a cross window at ground and first floor with a continuous hood mould, a bull’s eye window in the gable, and a door with a segmental head. A first-floor cross window is to the right. To each side of this wing, one cross window is present at ground and first floor, with two similar gables and finials. A single-storey kitchen wing is attached to the right, featuring two two-light windows to the rear under the eaves, one with a matching mullion and surround. A 20th-century replacement window is to the right.

The rear has one gable to the right with a two-light casement. A stair turret is set in the angle of the L-plan, with gables to the south and west, each featuring a two-light casement. The south elevation of the rear wing has a blocked cross window at first floor and a two-light casement with a hood mould in the gable above.

The interior features an open-well stair with a closed string, pendant finials, knobs to the newels, and turned balusters. The front left room contains a fine fireplace with a plaster frieze featuring a figure, blank shields, and cornices. The front left and front right rooms have panelling, with fluted pilasters in the front right and a fine fireplace with a cambered head. The house also has bar-stopped beams.