Details
SE 9605-9705 SCAWBY WEST STREET
(west side, off)
19/101 The Grove
GV II
Incorrectly marked as Station Road on Ordnance Survey map. House, now
residential home. Dated 1890, for Joseph Cliff, iron and steel
manufacturer. C20 internal alterations. Rock-faced limestone ashlar with
smooth ashlar dressings, entrance porch and stacks, Westmorland slate roof;
copper and lead roof to lighting dome. Jacobethan style. Approximately
rectangular, double-depth plan north-south range: 2-room south garden front
with entrance porch and hall, east and west reception rooms with canted
bays, kitchen and services and courtyard to rear. South front: 2 storeys, 3
bays, balanced asymmetrical front. Chamfered plinth, central cross-
mullioned window flanked by full-height square bay to right with 4-light
mullion and transom window and single lights to sides, and projecting full-
height canted bay to left with single transomed lights. First-floor string
course, sill string course. 2-light central window, 4-light and single-
light windows to bays beneath moulded string courses. All windows with
glazing bars and chamfered ashlar mullions in wave-moulded reveals. Coped
embattled parapet to canted bay; parapet with carved foliate relief panels
to square bay. Overhanging eaves with exposed rafter-ends. Coped gables
with shaped kneelers surmounted by ball finials. Projecting cornice end
stacks with ashlar offsets and diamond-shafted chimneys; corniced axial
stack to centre. Right return forms east principal entrance front: 2
storeys, 8 first-floor windows; projecting ground-floor section with canted
bay to right. Flight of steps to entrance with ashlar balustrade and square
piers with relief panels and moulded caps. Projecting single-storey canted
porch has plinth, moulded 4-centred arch with hood-mould, 2-fold panelled
door and Gothic overlight in reveal, arrow slits, winged gargoyles to
angles, string course, coped embattled parapet with central relief panel
bearing carved achievement and ball finial above supported by open scrolls.
Single-storey section to right has mullion and transom windows, string
courses, coped and embattled parapets with gargoyles. Parapet to left with
carved relief panels and datestone. Section to far right, facing courtyard,
has twin gables with oculi. Roof to central range hipped to right with
wrought-iron ball finial and large lighting dome with splayed base, two 3-
light cinquefoiled windows with leaded lights beneath moulded cornice and
splayed domed roof with weathervane finial. West front has buttress
containing foundation stone inscribed to Mrs Joseph Cliff, May 17 1890,
supporting first-floor oriel stair-window with corbelled base, mullioned
lights and coped embattled parapet. Interior. Original details include
hall with panelled dado, oak staircase with turned balusters, moulded frieze
with putti, strapwork and foliate motifs, large ornate fireplace with
shafted and corniced chimneypiece with alcove with keyed round arch, relief
panels and monogrammed cartouches beneath moulded cornice; large carved oak
chimneypiece to north-east room, Adam-style marble chimneypieces to south
rooms; moulded plasterwork friezes, ceilings. The largest and one of the
most impressive houses built of the local limestone. Joseph Cliff, a
prominent Scunthorpe ironmaster, owned the Frodingham Iron Works. N Pevsner
and J Harris, The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire, 1978, p 352.
Listing NGR: SE9674705226
