Beaufront Woodhead Farmhouse And Adjacent Cottage

The farmhouse and adjacent cottage at Beaufront Woodhead date back to the 18th century, with fabric from an earlier building incorporated into its construction. The house is built of roughly squared stone with cut quoins and dressings, and has stone slate roofs, except for grey tiles on the south side of the north-west wing. Four of the five chimney stacks have been rebuilt in brick, some with a rendered finish.

The south elevation is divided into two sections. The right-hand part is three storeys high and two bays wide, with a wider two-storey right bay beside it. The left-hand part has 8-pane sash windows and a left-end stack. The wide right bay features an altered panelled door within an alternating-block surround, to the left of 16-pane sash windows, and a stone right-end stack.

A set-back left wing is three storeys high and one bay wide. This features a blocked doorway, 12-pane sash windows to the upper floors, and a left-end stack. All sash windows have been renewed, and all gables have raised, reverse-stepped coping. A return side shows a gabled stair wing with a 12-pane Yorkshire sash and a rising stairwell behind an outshut of the main wing. To the right is a single-storey kitchen with a boarded door, a 4-pane sash window, and a right-end stack that has been heightened in brick.

Inside, the open-well staircase has an open string, stick balusters, and a ramped moulded handrail (with the upper part reconstructed using old materials). Flush-panelled and 2-panel doors have H and L hinges. A first-floor fireplace has a moulded stone surround.

A section of wall, approximately 1 metre thick, on the west side is believed to be part of an earlier house. The gradual rebuilding of that house may account for the house’s complex layout.