Cromwell House

Cromwell House is a dwelling that originated in the 16th century, was substantially remodelled in 1685, extended during the 18th century, and altered around 1840.

Materials and Construction

The house is built of slobbered squared rubble with gritstone and other stone dressings. The front roof is covered in blue slate, while the rear retains stone slates.

Plan and Development

The house began as a single-depth, lobby-entry dwelling facing south-east. Over time it evolved into a double-pile structure with a central entrance and a rear stair hall.

Exterior

Front Elevation: The front is asymmetrical, consisting of three bays arranged over two storeys. The entrance is positioned off-centre to the right and features an elaborately carved gritstone surround. The jambs have cyma mouldings, and the flat lintel contains a cyma-framed plaque displaying "C RE 1685" in relief, flanked by incised spirals. To the left of the current entrance is a blocked former lobby-entry doorway.

The windows have sawn stone plain surrounds and are probably 19th-century enlargements. Most retain rougher stone lintels immediately above, likely indicating the positions of earlier 18th-century windows. At first-floor level, the stonework shows blocked fragments of a pair of small, chamfered windows predating the 18th century. A third blocked window with a chamfered surround and decorated head, recorded in 1987 to the left, was obscured by ivy at later inspection but probably survives. The gutter is supported by plain, paired modillions. The gables are coped with shaped kneelers. The house has stone ridge and end stacks and a 20th-century roof window. All joinery on the front elevation is 20th century, with windows being nine-pane, top-hung casements. An attached garage to the right is not of special interest.

South-West Gable: The roof of the front range is asymmetrical—the front slope is steeper with a lower eaves than the rear. The front roof slope and its covering are 19th-century alterations, though the coping and kneelers match the original work. The two-storey rear range is set back by one bay and continues the shallow roof slope as a catslide with a plain verge. The angle between the ranges is filled by a single-storey extension with a lean-to roof of blue slate. The guttering from the front elevation extends across the gable of the front range on further paired modillions. The front range has a two-over-two sash window at ground-floor level and two first-floor windows—one also a two-over-two sash, the other with replacement joinery. The first-floor window in the rear range is a small single light, thought to be inserted and originally a stair window.

Rear Elevation: At the northern end, a rear porch is not of special interest. The adjacent bay breaks slightly forward and contains a tall stair window with coloured margin glazing; the stone frame projects slightly with simple dressing. To the right is a former doorway, similarly framed, that has been converted to a window with an inserted cill. The window openings in the two bays further right are different, being flush-framed. Their jambs are formed with red brick quoining, partially concealed by render imitating single-piece stone jambs. Two of these windows retain two-over-two sashes, the upper one being hornless. The window in the single-storey section was originally a doorway with a quoined opening. A flat-roofed boiler room to the right is not of special interest. The catslide roof has a tall stack aligned with the middle ridge stack.

North-East Gable: This gable is coped with a kneeler only at the front. It has a single window towards the rear with a two-over-two sash.

Interior

Ground-Floor Front Range:

The central room (hall) has a large inglenook fireplace on the south-west wall, formed with a wide, four-centred arch of cyma-moulded voussoirs. To its left is a cupboard reduced in size from the former lobby entry. To its right is a deeply chamfered stone doorway with a six-panelled door. The opposite wall features a basket-arched opening leading to a curved corridor connecting to the stair hall. This archway has a panelled soffit springing from corniced imposts. The front doorway retains internal shutters. The opposite wall has a built-in cupboard with panelled doors to the left and a shelved alcove with a basket arch to the right. The ceiling has three exposed axial beams that are chamfered. These chamfers stop immediately before reaching the south-west wall but continue into the north-east wall.

The south-east room (parlour) has two exposed axial beams, more roughly finished than those in the central room. The windows retain internal shutters. The north-west wall features a wide alcove with a four-centred arch and a moulded timber architrave. This is thought to have been an opening to a morning room or earlier stair hall. At the time of inspection, much of the gable wall was exposed stonework, revealing that the fireplace was a later addition, possibly 18th century. The fireplace has no ornamental surround but includes a large, deep, flat stone lintel.

A short, curved corridor links the hall to the stair hall, cutting a corner from the north-east room (gallery/drawing room). This corridor has basket arches at both ends with panelled soffits, but the corridor ceiling itself is not coved. The drawing room is fitted with a complete set of brass rods close to the ceiling, interpreted as picture rails dating from around 1800. The fireplace has a late 19th-century white and black marble surround and mantelpiece. The door, set in the curved wall to the corridor, is four-panelled. Windows retain shutters. The ceiling has a single unchamfered cross beam and lacks coving. Below this room is the only cellared part of the house.

Ground-Floor Rear Range:

The stair hall contains an open-string, dog-legged stair with stick balusters supporting a mahogany handrail that, apart from the bottom newel post, is wreathed. The newel post is also mahogany with a distinctive vase base in the form of an open bud. The ceiling is coved.

The centre rear room (originally a kitchen) retains two reused hewn roof timbers, reputed to have originated from the house. One simulates a ceiling beam; the other, a curved brace or saddle, serves as a fireplace (now alcove) lintel. The original window opening retains shutters.

The current kitchen (south-west room) is interpreted as a former morning room or possible stair hall—evidence for a staircase reportedly survives in the ceiling void. The former fireplace has been converted into a cupboard. This room was extended south-west by a single bay in the 19th century.

First Floor:

A basket arch leads from the stair hall to a corniced corridor extending to the current master bedroom at the south end of the house. Sections of hand-painted Sienna marbling on the walls are reported to survive beneath modern wallpaper, though incomplete due to later replastering.

The master bedroom is richly corniced and may have served as a first-floor reception room, although it now has a small Edwardian cast-iron fireplace. Windows lack shutters but have built-in window seats. The door is six-panelled.

The current bathroom retains a 19th-century cast-iron grate set in a simple stone surround and has a planked door with applied mouldings on the outer face to simulate a six-panelled door. Other first-floor doors are four-panelled. The current attic staircase is a late 20th-century alteration, replacing a Victorian stairwell now converted into en-suites serving the other two front bedrooms.

Attic:

The two attic rooms are thought to be a Victorian alteration. The southern bay (above the master bedroom) is unfloored, with the lath and plaster ceiling higher than the rest of the attic floor. The roof structure retains some older timbers but is mainly 19th century. A large roof light was inserted to the rear in 2009.

Subsidiary Items

The storeroom attached to the rear porch, interpreted as a servants' workroom, retains an early 19th-century cast-iron hob grate and pulley wheels in the ceiling.

The coach house and stables to the south are now in separate ownership and have been converted into cottages. They are not included in the listing.

History

Cromwell House was the principal residence for the Maerbeck Estate into the 20th century. It is identified as one of seven houses noted in Long Preston in 1592. The 1685 door surround is too large to have been relocated from the original lobby entrance and is thought to date a remodelling of the house, probably including the enlargement of the inglenook fireplace and the lengthening of the house northwards. The spiral motifs on the entrance lintel may be apotropaic marks intended to ward off witches—further similar marks may survive associated with other 17th-century openings. Around this time, following the Restoration of Charles II, the house was known as "Crumble House".

The house is thought to have originally had an external stair at the rear, with the upper floor used for weaving until the 18th century. The house is believed to have been made double-pile in the 18th century, probably with an internal staircase in the added rear section rising into the current bathroom.

Further remodelling in the early or mid-19th century saw the creation of a new dog-legged stair—the joinery of this stair being very similar to that of another house locally dated to around 1840, the joiner identified as John Beechwood—the steepening of the front roof slope to accommodate blue slates, and the enlargement of windows with sawn stone surrounds. Various changes in the treatment of openings and decorative features, such as plasterwork and joinery, suggest several episodes of partial refurbishment.

Reason for Designation

Cromwell House is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

• As a pre-1700 house retaining evidence of its original plan form together with high-quality stonework, particularly the front entrance surround with its possible apotropaic marks.
• For the evidence of the way the house has evolved over the centuries and for the survival of a range of late 18th-century and early 19th-century internal features.