Old House Museum Including Mounting Block

Old House Museum Including Mounting Block

House, extended and altered to form various dwellings, now operating as a local history museum. Dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, possibly with earlier origins, the building has undergone numerous later additions and alterations. It is constructed of rubble limestone with sandstone dressings and has a stone slate roof.

The building follows an irregular H-shaped plan, with the earliest range forming the left cross wing. The exterior presents 2 storeys with large quoins. The left gable features a restored mullioned and transomed 3-light window, a 2-light mullioned window to the first floor, and a small opening above. A gabled 2-storey porch to the right of the cross wing has a quoined doorway with an elongated lintel and a 2-light window over it. The central section contains a recess with 2 multi-paned iron casements to each floor; the lower-right window has an arched lintel. The right cross wing displays two 2/2 sashes to each floor, with 19th-century punched stone surrounds, shaped kneelers and gable copings. Set back to the right is a side wing with a door and 2/2 sash to each floor; a stone end stack with rounded cap rises here. The left return of the right cross wing has a blocked 2-light mullioned window to each floor, with a mounting block positioned against the wall. A corniced ashlar stack with brick shaft rises from the left of the valley near the porch. The left return of the left cross wing features a projecting side wing lit by 2-light mullioned windows. This cross wing has a doorway and multi-paned casement beneath a restored 2-light mullioned window.

The interior contains a central range with a large rear-wall fireplace featuring splayed ashlar reveals, keeping holes and an arched timber lintel, along with various ceiling beams and a 20th-century staircase in the original stair turret to the left of the fireplace. The left cross wing contains ashlar fireplaces on both floors and a timber-framed partition that rises through 2 floors, featuring triangular-headed doorways and some original wattle and daub infill. Oak beams, oak floorboards and exposed roof timbering are evident, including a principal-rafter truss with collar and single purlins with wind braces. A rear room contains a small 18th-century corniced ashlar fireplace. Above the centre range is another ashlar fireplace, and against the right cross wing stands an oak partition with a fragment of a triangular-headed doorway. In the rear-left corner of the right cross wing is an oak-framed doorway accessing a garderobe. The central ground-floor room of the right cross wing displays 19th-century cottage features and has an arched cellar to its rear.

The building is thought to have evolved from a medieval hall and cross wing. The cross wing may have been underbuilt around 1535 to provide a "competant dwelling house" as detailed in a 1534 lease from the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield Cathedral to Ralf Gell of Hopton. In 1777, Sir Richard Arkwright leased the house from Philip Gell and converted it into 6 dwellings for mill employees. One of the cottages was demolished in the mid-20th century, with remnants remaining attached to the left cross wing.