Buckden House

Buckden House is a mid-18th century house with 19th-century extensions and alterations. It is constructed of coursed squared gritstone, with a graduated stone slate roof. The original house was two storeys and three bays wide, and has since been extended upwards with a third storey, and to the left with two additional bays in two stages. A projecting single-storey entrance range sits over the original three-bay ground floor, and a 20th-century range has been added to the right. Quoins are visible.

The original doorway, now within the 19th-century extension, features a six-panel door with the upper four panels glazed, set within an eared and moulded architrave, a pulvinated frieze, a modillioned cornice, and a triangular pediment. The 19th-century entrance is flanked by columns supporting an entablature and cornice, with three-light mullioned windows on either side. Flat-faced mullions feature throughout the windows. The ground floor fenestration includes a large three-light window in the first bay and a sixteen-pane sash window in the second bay. The first floor has mullioned windows of varying widths: three, two, three, one and three lights respectively. The second floor window configuration mirrors this with the same number of lights. A projecting band is present at both the first-floor level and the eaves level, along with stone gutter brackets. Central and end stacks are also present.

At the rear of the house, a two-panel door is located to the right of the centre, and a transomed window, set within a round arch with imposts and a keystone, is placed to the left. The original house’s almost square windows in bays one and three, on both the ground and first floors, have sixteen-pane sashes in plain stone surrounds. The remaining windows have similar surrounds, but constructed from a more yellow stone, with the right-hand quoins positioned between the fourth and fifth bays.

Inside, original features include a staircase with three straight flights, knopped column-on-vase balusters, and a moulded ramped handrail, situated against the rear wall opposite the entrance. A front room on the left side of the entrance contains a built-in cupboard with fielded panel double doors and three shaped shelves. A modillioned ceiling cornice in this room may be original and was extended when the front addition was built. A moulded ceiling cornice is also present on the landing. The original house was almost square in plan, with the front door opening directly into the main dining room (to the right), a parlour to the left, and a rear pantry and kitchen on each side of the staircase.

The early history of the house is associated with the Heber and Ramsden families. Significant alterations likely occurred in 1879 when the house was purchased by General Crompton Stansfield, whose daughter, Elizabeth, lived there from 1866 to 1938. The house and estate were sold in 1945 and again in 1967, and in 1974 it was converted into an outdoor education centre.