Summary

Machpelah House is a detached, double fronted stone built house dating to 1842.

Description

BUILDING: Machpelah House, a private residence, dates to c.1842.

MATERIALS: dressed coursed millstone grit in diminishing courses with stone slate roof.

PLAN: built on ground sloping steeply up to the rear (east), ground floor at the rear is at first floor level to the front (west). The ground floor/basement was formerly a coach house, with main living quarters on the first floor and bedrooms on the second floor. There is a ridge chimney stack at either gable end, the northern one bearing a date of 1842.

EXTERIOR: the front (west) elevation has the former coach house entrance with a basket arch now a half-glazed door and windows to the ground floor right. The central main entrance at first floor level is approached up a flight of stone stairs forming a bridge, and has a simple Gibbs surround. The wide half-glazed door has a rectangular overlight with stained glass depicting a viaduct. There are three second floor windows and a single first floor window to either side of the door, all six-over-six horned vertical sashes with stone lintels and cills. The rear elevation has an entrance to the left and a mix of windows, including two central windows with stained glass in margin lights. The right (south) side elevation has a window to the first and second floors similar to those at the front.

INTERIOR: the front door opens to a stone flagged hall and a cut string staircase on the right with a wooden handrail and wavy wooden balusters. The windows with stained glass margins are at the rear at first and second floor level. To right and left are reception rooms, that to the right with plasterwork ceiling and coving and original shutters and skirting, a Victorian fire grate, possibly introduced, and later fire surround and hearth. The left room is plainer, with shutters and an original fireplace with tiling. To the rear left is a smaller room and to the rear right a passage to the back door. Stairs lead down to the former coach house, now a kitchen. A stone-lined arched passage leads from beside the stairs to the rear. The second floor has two bedrooms to the front with bathroom and en-suite behind. The main bedroom to the right has shutters and a fireplace with white marble surround.

History

There is a date stone on one of the chimneys of Machpelah House of 1842. This date is corroborated by its first appearance in the 1851 census, occupied by Mr Cockcroft, and its presence on the OS 1:10000 map published in 1854. The will of Stephen Fawcett, who was born in 1806 and died in 1876, refers to the 'newly erected messuage at Machpelah', in the occupation of Abraham Cockcroft, to be given to his son John Fawcett, which also suggests a date around the middle of the century.

There is evidence in the stonework on the south side of the building of a former extension with a pent roof, possibly connecting the house with an adjacent building, and this appears to be confirmed by the 1894 OS 1:2500 map. The footprint of the house appears otherwise unchanged, though there have been internal alterations at the rear.

Reasons for Listing

* Architectural: it is a substantial, stone built gentleman's house of the early Victorian period with an integrated former coach house and a number of surviving original features;
* Surviving features: original doors, doorcases, shutters and skirting survive along with the staircase and several fireplaces;
* Group value: it is one of a group of buildings in the vicinity, most of which are associated with weaving, though Machpelah House itself was clearly built as a gentleman's residence.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26523580

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)