PRN 30144 Small country house, mid 17th century. Constructed in deep gold ironstone dressed with paler gold ironstone with grey pantile double ridge roofs. The building has ornate Dutch gables with scrolled volutes and 2 large ashlar ridge stacks with pronounced coping. Two storey and garret. South front of five irregular bays with central doorway. For the full description and the legal address of this listed building please refer to the appropriate list of buildings of special architectural or historic interest. {1} Probably dates to about 1660. Dutch style gables.{2} Of a rich golden ironstone dressed with a lighter grey stone. Seven bays of windows with mullions and transoms on the entrance front, a broad string and a full cornice. The doorway is 18th century. The side fronts with pairs of Dutch gables and scrolly foliage volutes. An odd arrangement of windows from the ground up, all of two and three lights. A dog-leg staircase possesses wonderfully round finials. A date of c.1660 has been suggested, and this is not far from the 1653 of similar almshouses at Denton (demolished).{3} This is the ancient house of the lordship, in fact more ancient than the Dutch gable might lead up to suppose. The regular array of big windows with their stone mullions and transoms on the north front - the entrance front - together with the Dutch gables are seventeenth century; the smaller mullioned windows on the south front must be sixteenth century, and tell us something about the original appearance of the house built by the Graunt (or Grant) family, who were here for a century or more. In origin a yeoman family, they rose to gentry status, but then became hard-pressed financially and finally sold to the Williamsons in 1674. It was perhaps they who gave the house its Dutch gables and the stylish new façade of the north front soon after. When the last Thomas Williamson lost his first wife in 1763, he married her companion, Elizabeth Cope. She proceeded, after his death, to marry, as her second husband, William Welby, who was created 1st Baronet of Denton in 1807. Sir William Welby's descendants held the estate until 1944. During the long years of Welby ownership the manor house stood empty, with the family living at the nearby hall. In fact the manor house was only occupied because the family did not want a rival family on the other side of the road. Ironically, it is now the hall which is partly ruined, a fragment only occupied, while the manor house is revived and restored.{4} The Old Manor House, Allington. Partially extant 17th century farmstead. Regular courtyard with L-plan range plus detached buildings to the third side of the yard. The farmhouse is detached from the main working complex. There has been significant loss (greater than 50%) of traditional buildings. Located within or in association with a village. {5}