Day Ash House With 2 Blocks To Rear

This is a mid-18th century house, built for the Day family. It is constructed of coursed squared gritstone with a graduated stone slate roof. The main block is two storeys high and three bays wide, with a lower two-bay range attached to its left. To the rear are a 1½-storey, two-bay range at right angles, linked to the main house by a short wall, and a two-storey, single-bay block to the right, both linked by 20th-century extensions that are not of special interest.

The main block has a plinth and stressed quoins. The central entrance features a half-glazed six-panel door within an architrave, incorporating a pulvinated frieze and a corniced pediment. Flanking the door are sixteen-pane sash windows in projecting surrounds on both floors, the ground-floor windows being taller. Above the door is a round-arched sash window with glazing bars, also within a projecting surround with imposts and keystone. A projecting band runs above sill level on both floors and at the eaves. Shaped kneelers are present, with ashlar gable coping and end stacks, the stack to the left being partly external.

The range to the left has square windows in plain surrounds, two to each floor. The ground-floor window on the right has been altered to French windows. It has a gable coping and a stack to the left end.

At the rear, the main range features a central arched staircase window with a keystone and imposts, flanked by a similar window to the ground floor. Above the staircase window is a square window. There are also two blocked, recessed-chamfered windows on the ground floor. The added range to the rear has mid-20th century windows. The range at right angles, extending to the left and linked to the main house by a short wall, has 20th-century fenestration, except for a recessed-chamfered window under the eaves on the right return. A central stack is present. The single-bay block to the right also possesses 20th-century windows and additions, as well as a recessed-chamfered window under the eaves on its north side; it has hollow-moulded kneelers and gable coping.

Inside the main range, on the ground floor to the left, a large stone fireplace with a moulded surround (previously located in the first floor of the lower left range and removed around 1970) backs onto a massive segmental-arched inglenook fireplace with a cyma-stopped chamfer and a doorway (now a cupboard) to the right. The adjacent range to the left incorporates a straight-flight staircase with splat balusters against the rear wall. The added rear range to the left reportedly contains a large inglenook fireplace in the south room; an attached barn to the right, now converted into a house, is not noted as having special interest. The block to the rear, right features a large fireplace against the left wall, with moulded brackets supporting a plain lintel.

The house is believed to have been the home of the Reverend Francis Day, who founded the local school in 1749.