Description

BAKEWELL

SK2168 CUNNINGHAM PLACE
831-1/4/92 (West side)
20/04/54 Old House Museum including mounting
block
(Formerly Listed as:
CHURCH LANE
(West side)
Cunningham Place (Old House Museum))

II*

House, extended and altered to form various dwellings, now
local history museum. C16 and C17, possibly of earlier origin
and with later additions and alterations. Rubble limestone
with sandstone dressings; stone slate roof. Irregular H-shaped
plan with earliest range forming left cross wing.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. Large quoins. Left gable has restored,
mullioned and transomed 3-light window; 2-light mullioned
window to first floor and small opening above.
Gabled 2-storey porch to right of cross wing has quoined
doorway with elongated lintel; 2-light window over. Central
recess with 2 multi-paned iron casements to each floor;
lower-right window has arched lintel.
Right cross wing: two 2/2 sashes to each floor; C19 punched
stone surrounds, shaped kneelers and gable copings. Set back
to right is a side wing with door and with 2/2 sash to each
floor; stone end stack with rounded cap. Left return of right
cross wing has a blocked 2-light mullioned window to each
floor; mounting block against wall. A corniced ashlar stack
with brick shaft rises from left of valley near the porch.
Left return (of left cross wing): projecting side wing lit by
2-light mullioned windows. Cross wing has doorway and
multi-paned casement beneath restored 2-light mullioned
window.
INTERIOR: central range with large rear-wall fireplace having
splayed ashlar reveals, keeping holes and arched timber
lintel; various ceiling beams; C20 staircase in original stair
turret to left of the fireplace.
Left cross wing: ashlar fireplaces on both floors and a
timber-framed partition which rises through 2 floors and has
triangular-headed doorways and some original wattle and daub
infill. Oak beams, oak floorboards and exposed roof timbering:
principal-rafter truss with collar, single purlins with wind
braces.
Room to rear with small C18 corniced ashlar fireplace. Over
centre range is another ashlar fireplace and against the right

cross wing an oak partition with fragment of a
triangular-headed doorway.
To rear-left corner of right cross wing is an oak-framed
doorway giving access to a garderobe.
Central ground-floor room of right cross wing with C19 cottage
features; arched cellar to rear.
HISTORY: a complex house thought to have evolved from a
medieval hall and cross wing, the latter possibly underbuilt
c1535 to provide a "competant dwelling house" as detailed in a
1534 lease from The Dean and Chapter of Lichfield Cathedral to
Ralf Gell of Hopton. In 1777 Sir Richard Arkwright leased the
house from Philip Gell and converted it into 6 dwellings for
mill employees; one of the cottages demolished mid C20,
remnants attached to left cross wing.
(Bakewell and District Historical Society: Old House Museum,
Bakewell: 1984-; Journal of The Bakewell and District
Historical Society: Meeke E R: 1984-: 11-30).

Listing NGR: SK2147868541

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Bakewell Old House Museum at Wikipedia
• Bakewell Old House Museum official website
• Wikidata Q17545803

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: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)