Greenbank

Greenbank is a small farmhouse or cottage, probably dating from the mid to later 17th century, though it was altered in the 19th century and has an added rear wing. The building was unoccupied at the time of inspection in September 1995.

The structure is built with square-panelled timber-framing and later brick nogging. The front and north gable walls are rendered and painted with imitation square-panelled half-timbering, while the south gable wall was rebuilt in brick and rendered, probably in the 20th century. The roof is slate with 19th-century cusped barge-boarding and brick chimneys.

The building follows a single-depth, three-bay plan on a roughly north-south axis, facing west, with a shallow rear wing added to the southern half. It is one and a half storeys tall with three dormer windows. The front elevation is now almost symmetrical except for the chimneys, featuring a central doorway protected by a 19th-century timber-framed gabled porch, two square windows at ground floor level, and three gabled dormers above with wavy barge-boards. All windows have altered glazing. The ridge chimney is offset to the right, with an added chimney in front of the ridge at the left end. The left (north) gable wall has a large 19th-century brick buttress and exposed timber framing to the rear of this including a rail, two sets of studs and a passing brace over these, with a square window above. The south gable wall has two rectangular six-pane windows at ground floor and a square window above.

At the rear, the northern half displays exposed timber framing consisting of a corner post and two full-height wall-posts with straight up-bracing to the wallplate, intermediate rails and studs, and a wide slightly curved lintel at a higher level in the north bay, with a stud beneath its centre and a two-light casement to the right of this.

Internally, the south bay contains a hollow-chamfered spine beam with square undecorated joists tenoned into it, and an inglenook bressumer with roll-moulding on the face, probably a re-used 16th-century beam. The added service wing shows visible timber-framing of the original external wall. The centre bay has a brick axial partition beneath the spine beam with a 19th-century elliptical archway through it and a 19th-century staircase to the rear. The north bay has a chamfered spine beam and square undecorated joists, and an inserted brick chimney breast containing a good mid-19th-century cast-iron fireplace with a round-headed opening framed by Ionic colonnettes. On the upper floor, the centre and north bays have wind-braced purlins. The cross-frame between these bays has an inserted doorway severing the tie-beam, with added collars attached to both sides above the doorway. In the roof-space, the apex of the principal rafters (now approximately 30 centimetres below the present roof) is closed with wattle-and-daub, features which suggest that the north bay was formerly separate from the domestic accommodation of the centre and south bays. The floor levels vary between bays, with the north bay lowest and the south bay highest compared to the centre; the north and centre bays have old floor-boards laid in short lengths.

Historically, the building was probably formerly a two-bay dwelling with a shippon at the north end.