Happy Easter!
We’re just coming up to having been at Parwich Lees Cottage for a year now – and have not had much luck in finding out too much about the history of the property other than it was the Head Bailiff’s House for the Parwich Lees Estate. We were wondering if there’s anyone in the village that has any further information on the property or any old photographs of what it used to look like, we know it was in a state of disrepair in the 1960’s when a builder took it over and renovated it. We also know that the property was extended at some point in the recent past – and were wondering what it would originally have looked like inside and out. We discovered that there was originally a range in what is now the dining room and have exposed the original inglenook fireplace, but are a little confused as to how the rest of the house was laid out.
Any info or photos would be greatly appreciated.
Regards
Keeley
Any information emailed to parwich@hotmail.co.uk will be forwarded to Keeley (see also Parwich & District Local History website for more on the history of the area).
PARWICH.ORG 
Originally Parwich was very much a nuclear settlement, with all the farm houses and cottages in the village itself. This did not alter until the late eighteenth century. Outside the village the parish would have been made up of clearly defined arable land (open fields), meadow, hill grazing/common moorland and perhaps some woodland.
As you walk along the footpath along the Flatts to Parwich Lees the ridge and furrow stops suddenly, without any obvious change in topography. This is not on a parish boundary (though that could possibly have changed), so it is puzzling that medieval land use here should change from arable for no currently obvious reasons.
However ‘Lees’ as a place name can indicate a managed woodland area. Often such medieval woodland would consist of a selection of tree species and types of cultivation. This raises the possibility that Parwich Lees provided various types of timber and coppiced hazel or willow for Parwich, perhaps with a resident woodsman or charcoal burner.
This idea might be supported by the name Littlewood Farm, just east of Parwich. This local place name dates back to at least the thirteenth century, and may indicate if there was a little wood here there was a larger wood elsewhere in the parish, perhaps at Parwich Lees.
However, this is confused by the fact that in the nineteenth century Parwich Lees House was for a while known as Newton Lees, possibly suggesting the woodland was not originally in Parwich parish.
I understand that Parwich Lees House started life as a post enclosure act farm (i.e. created around 1800), but have not confirmed this. This farmhouse was extended and improved by the Brittlebank family in the mid-nineteenth century. The Brittlebanks were successful lawyers from Winster and Ashbourne, and began the gentrification of the property.
Presumably as the property developed towards a small estate rather than just a farm, Parwich Lees cottage would have first been built.
A lot of this may be speculation and it it does not answer your questions on the Cottage itself, Keeley. If you gather more information, Parwich & District Local History Society would welcome any contribution on Parwich Lees for its News Quarterly.