Stanton in Peak - Part 2

 

The Reading Room

Continuing my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge for Stanton in Peak, having already photographed its rear elevation from Holy Trinity churchyard, I turned up Park Lane to take photos of the front elevation of the Grade II Listed Ivy House and its separately listed gatepiers and wall. 

 

Views of Ivy House

As with Yew Tree Cottage on Main Road, the thick hedges partially obscured my view of this late C17 house with C18 and C19 additions, but I could see that the original house, built in the local buff/red coloured Ashover Grit, still retains its stone slate roof but those of the northern extension have been replaced with plain Staffordshire blue tiles. 

 

The north elevation of the house attached to Ivy House

The next building on my list was the late C18 house attached to the west elevation of Ivy House, which again has had itsl stone slate roof replaced with tiles, rather than the usual Welsh slate, which makes me wonder if the Thornhill family had connections with the Staffordshire Potteries. 

 

The south elevation of the house attached to Ivy House

At the junction of Park Lane and Middle Street, the north elevation of a large early C19 farm  outbuilding provides a reminder that, although quarrying dominated the economy of Stanton in Peak in the later part of the C19 and there was lead mining in the area, the settlement was foremost based on agriculture - as recorded by the entry in the Domesday Book. 

 

An old farm building at the junction of Park Lane and Middle Street

Heading down Middle Street, the first building that caught my eye was what I initially thought was a Methodist chapel but, getting closer, I could see an inscribed plaque that informed me that this was the Reading Room, which was built by Mrs. Thornhill Gell and presented to the parish in 1876 and is now used as the village hall. 

 

The Reading Room

On the opposite side of the road is the Grade II Listed Hall Gate Cottage, which dates to the late C18 and has C19 and C20 alterations. Originally a pair of cottages attached to another large agricultural building to the rear, it is only listed for its group value but provides another example of locally quarried Ashover Grit and blue plain tiles for the roof. 

 

Hall Gate Cottage

 

A little further down Middle Road, set back from the road, is the C17 Mount Cottage, which was altered in the C19. Again it is listed for its group value only and provides another example of gritstone with the original stone slates replaced by blue plain tiles and I just took a single photograph of it from the road. 

 

Mount Cottage

 

Immediately next to this,The Mount is built with its front elevation at right angles to the road and, with its its 3 bays and 3 storeys, this Neoclassical style late C18 house was by far the most substantial residence that I had so far encountered in the village. For some reason, which I didn't think about at the time, the upper central window and presumably the one below, which is now obscured by a climbing plant, have been blocked up. 

 

The Mount

 

According to the Conservation Area Appraisal, unlike Wentworth in South Yorkshire for example, the village wasn’t all tied and was once split between the Thornhill and Haddon Hall estates. Independent yeoman farmers have always lived in the village and a house such as this, which contrasts with the surrounding cottages, may well have been built by one of them. 

 

A detail of the 1898 1:25,000 scale Ordnance Survey map

 

The 1898 1:25,000 scale Ordnance Survey map shows that the houses to the north side of Middle Road have been crammed into a very small area of land, with very little space for gardens and this may explain the plot of land used as allotments in the centre of the village. 

 

Cedar Cottage

Butting against the south side of The Mount is the mid C18 Cedar Cottage, where the steeply pitched roof, ridge and gable end stone chimney stacks, coped gable, kneelers, mullioned windows and raised quoins and dressings are quite typical of the period. Here I got talking to the owner, who invited me in to look at the fireplace and gave me permission to photograph the house from the terraced garden on the opposite side of the road. 

 

The fireplace at Cedar Cottage

The adjoining late C18 Acorn Cottage is built with similar materials, with Staffordshire blue bricks also used for the chimney stacks, but it is more modest in its detailing and its flush quoins and window dressings are more akin to the cottages that I had seen elsewhere, although it appears to be a lot more spacious. 

 

Acorn Cottage

 

On the opposite side of the road is the quite substantial 4 bay Gould Cottage (1664), which has a tympanum above the door that has its date and the letters EGL carved in relief, with the lintel below inscribed with WT 1900. 

 

The tympanum and lintel at Gould Cottage

Historic England description states that the house was refronted in 1900, with this presumably referring to the C20 3-light chamfered mullion windows and not to the rebuilding of the front elevation itself, which looks like the original masonry. 

 

Gould Cottage

 

Along with the late C17 Woodlands, which adjoins its west end and is sparsely fenestrated on its front elevation, it is Grade II Listed for its group value only and this may reflect alterations that have been undertaken to the fabric or its interior. 

 

Woodlands

 

The last building on my Photo Challenge was The Cottage, which lies directly opposite Woodlands and is another modest house dated to the late C17, with gritstone and blue tiles used for the walls and roof respectively, but is also listed only for group value.

 

The Cottage

 

Since arriving in Birchover at 11.42, it had taken me 3 hours to have a quick look at Rowtor Rocks, walk up Main Street in Birchover, briefly explore Stanton Moor and photograph the listed buildings in Stanton in Peak and I hadn’t yet stopped for lunch. 

 

The Flying Childers

 

The next No. 172 bus back to Bakewell wasn’t until 16:32, which was too late in the day, but the bus to Darley Dale was due at 15:10 and I therefore decided to catch the latter and, to fill in the time, I would have a pint at the Flying Childers. 

 

The inscribed initials of William Pole Thornhill

Along with a couple who arrived at the same time as me, I was very disappointed to find that it was closed. After taking a couple of general record photos, I noted that the initials WTP were inscribed into the lintels above the entrance and other doors of the building, which are those of William Pole Thornhill, who paid for very many of the houses in the village to be built. 

 

Holly House

When planning my day out, I had made contingencies if my arrival in Stanton in Peak did not coincide closely with the times of the buses and after taking a couple of photos of the Grade II* Listed Holly House, where some of the windows have been blocked up to avoid the window tax, I went in search for the public footpath that would take me to the A6, which involved a walk of 1.5 km as the crow flies.

 

The name plaque at Holly House