Oldstone,Ruins Of House

The ruins of Oldstone, a country house located in a landscaped park, date back to the 18th century, with possible earlier remains. The house was remodeled in the 19th century and later suffered a fire, leaving it as a roofless ruin. The structure is built of dressed slate rubble. Historical photographs in the National Building Record show that the house originally featured a 7-bay facade on the southeast front, with two main rooms: a drawing room on the right and a dining room on the left, along with a central entrance.

The 19th-century remodeling included reorienting the house and creating a large stair hall at the back, which has an entrance porch on the left side in Gothic style. The remaining structure is roughly L-shaped, with the service areas now destroyed. The front range, which was originally topped with a hipped roof and had a modillion eaves cornice, displays a symmetrical three-storey, seven-bay facade. However, the top storey and the heads of the first-floor windows have collapsed.

There is a string course at the first-floor level and a fine limestone Doric portico featuring engaged columns, triglyphs in the frieze, and a triangular pediment. The left return of the building has a two-storey gabled projection with a large three-light Gothic-style window that lights the stair hall, showcasing Perpendicular tracery, and a porch below with a chamfered four-centred arch. To the left, there is a gable with a projecting stack that terminates in a square cap and short round pillars. Additionally, a drawing from the National Building Record depicts the drawing room's late 18th-century interior, which includes a Neo-classical moulded plaster ceiling and chimneypiece. Oldstone is believed to have been an estate since the 11th century and was the seat of the Cholwiches, who rebuilt the house in the 18th century.