Reddish House

Reddish House is a detached house dating from the early 18th century, built for Jeremiah Cray, a clothier. It is constructed of Flemish bond brick on a limestone plinth, with stone quoins and a hipped tiled roof featuring large gable end panelled brick stacks. The north front is two storeys and an attic, with a four-window arrangement. A central six-panelled door is accessed by stone steps with cast iron handrails, featuring a moulded architrave and a segmental pediment supported by consoles with a bust above. Flanking the door are two twelve-pane sashes in moulded architraves, with a pulvinated plat band over the lintels. The first floor also has four twelve-pane sashes in moulded architraves, with a plat band over the lintels. The central two bays of the north front are flanked by giant Composite pilasters which rise to a dentilled brick cornice and a pediment containing an oval window within a bayleaf surround. The right return side of the house has twelve-pane sashes. Attached to the left is a late 18th-century two-storey wing with two twelve-pane sashes to each floor, a brick dentilled cornice to the hipped tiled roof, and to its left is a range of single-storey brick outbuildings and a carriage house. The rear of the house features a central, pedimented doorway with a twelve-pane sash flanked by two others with keystones, and two sashes to the first floor. A late 18th-century two-storey wing projecting to the right has twelve-pane sashes and a hipped roof. The interior, which was inaccessible during the 1986 survey, is said to include a central hall with Tuscan scagliola columns, a bolection-moulded fireplace, and a staircase with a wrought iron balustrade. A drawing room features an apsed alcove flanked by Ionic columns and modillioned ceiling cornices. It is believed that some interior remodelling may have taken place by Cecil Beaton, who lived in the house until his death in 1980.