Dovecote and pigsties at Jodrell Hall

Dovecote and Pigsties at Jodrell Hall

A late 17th-century building of combined dovecote and pigsties, with 19th-century alterations. The structure is constructed of sandstone, red brick and stone flags, and stands in the grounds of Terra Nova School (formerly Jodrell Hall), approximately 15 metres north-east of the farm buildings.

The building is a square three-storeyed tower with a pyramidal roof and a central pyramidal glover. The walls rise from a stone plinth and are built of hand-made brick laid in English Garden Wall bond. At the lower level there are two courses of stretchers between header courses, but above half-height of the second-floor door jamb this increases to four stretcher courses between header courses. A two-course projecting band in Flemish Bond runs around the building below the threshold of the second-storey door.

The second-floor entrance to the dovecote is central in the south-east elevation, a plain rectangular opening with a flat head of alternating red and burnt headers and a stone threshold. The frame is thick and features a rectangular over-light above a ledged and battened door. Below this, at ground floor, are two low pigsty openings with rubbed-brick segmental arches and a brick pier between them, with the left opening now blocked. The wall to the right is partly obscured by a south-east extension.

The left return has two similar openings, with the left opening in either corner also blocked. Between these openings and off-centre to the right is a first-floor door with a segmental arch of alternating red and burnt headers. This is blocked above the flat head of the vertical-boarded door, which has a dowelled, heavy, moulded timber frame. The door is accessed by a concrete bridge leading from wall-top brick steps; some blocking below the bridge may relate to the original access. The right return is obscured at ground floor by a north-east extension and is blind above this. An eaves line defines the south-east corner of the extension, which returns to meet the main tower. The eaves of the pyramidal stone-flag roof project with exposed rafter feet. The central glover is a smaller pyramid supported on wooden posts, with three open lights to each side. A 20th-century weather vane is present.

Internally, the pigsties are stone-flagged and lime-washed with exposed ceiling joists and wide floorboards above. The south-west room was inaccessible, but the north-west room contains a blocked window and doorway in the north-east wall. The first-floor vegetable store is divided by a timber-framed partition, slightly off-centre but allowing the two halves to share the now-blocked window. A large transverse beam, hand-cut and chamfered, rests on this partition; the ceiling joists are machine-cut. The partition comprises top, bottom and middle rails and four posts, with mortice-holes for a fifth post and fourth section of middle rail. The timbers are hand-cut with mortices and grooves for wattle nogging. The nesting loft contains niches for 360 pairs and a central timber potence (revolving ladder) with pivot and arms, but no fixed ladder. Both the first and second floors have concrete screeds. Two beams support the four posts of the roof, which is torched, with a single purlin to each side sitting between the hips. All roof timbers are machine-cut and the beams are chamfered. A timber and iron grille for the glover survives but is detached.

Brick walls with hog-back stone copings (one flat-coped) surround the yards, with stone gateposts at the openings, some damaged. The yards have a brick herringbone-pattern floor.