Listed Building record MDR4933 - Moor Cottage Farm, off Oakerthorpe Road, Wirksworth

SK 3005 5427 Moor Cottage Farm. 19th century building with garden terrace earthwork. (1) Moor Cottage Farm is a grade II listed house, built circa 1830, and later adapted for use as a farmhouse. It is built of red brick, with iron framed windows, and has a Roman tiled roof. It is two storeys high, and was originally cross-shaped, with later 19th century infill in the north angle. The south-facing main front is of three bays with a projecting gabled central section. There are pairs of pointed windows to the left and central sections, with small panes of glass, arched and with quatrefoils to most windows. Those to the ground floor centre are taller than the others. To the right are altered French windows with shutters, set within a trellised verandah with a slate roof. There is reported to be an iron hand-pump in a vaulted cellar within. This house was probably built for the family of Charles Wright (d. 1846), a prosperous grocer and vintner. It is a highly characteristic example of a cottage ornee, adapted for use later in the 19th century as a farmhouse when the adjoining range of farm buildings were added. There is a tufa-faced grotto in the garden, emphasising the genteel nature of the original house. Photographic evidence suggests that the building was formerly lime-washed. Also the roof covering has been altered, and may originally have been thatched. Listed as a highly characateristic example of a late Georgian genteel cottage, displaying the influence of designers such as Humphry Repton and sons. (2)