Gretton Farmhouse

Gretton Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating from the 16th and 17th centuries. It is constructed from limestone ashlar on the upper floors, with the front rendered on timber framing, and features a stone slate roof with coped end gables and ashlar stacks that have moulded cappings and skirts. The main block has two full-height gables on a symmetrical front with a through-passage and a deep back gabled wing on the left, along with a 20th-century extension with a flat roof at the back right. The building stands three storeys high and has a two-windowed design in the gables, featuring 1:2:1 oriels on double console brackets above 1:3:1 oriels on triple console brackets, all with slate roofs and diagonal leading. At the ground floor, below an offset in the wall with a single slate coping or string course, there are 4-light stone chamfer mullion casements with king mullions, with the window to the right of the door being deeper than the one to the left. Centrally located is a 6-panel door set within an elliptical arch, which has a stopped drip over a deep panel inscribed with the date 1656. The left gable includes a small arched stair light and a 2-light chamfered mullion casement with a stopped drip. The back gable wall features some stone slate hanging at the upper level. A graffito depicting a knight on a horse is carved on a stone at the lower right of the main front. Inside, there is a very fine, extremely flat 4-centred Tudor arch stone fireplace with decorated spandrels, although it includes a carefully matched poured concrete central section. To the right of this fireplace is a blocked 2-light mullioned window, and to the left is another fireplace with a large wood bressummer. Both sides of the cross passage have timber framed partitions, and there is framing in the back wall. A 3-light chamfered mullion window with a drip now looks into the new kitchen extension. This farmhouse is a remarkable example of its type.