Collins Green Farmhouse

Collins Green Farmhouse

Collins Green Farmhouse is a complex building with probable medieval origins, substantially remodelled and extended over several centuries. It comprises a main linear one and a half-storey range with a two and a half-storey late 17th-century brick cross-gable range projecting from its south end.

The main range is believed to have originated as part of a medieval timber-framed house, later remodelled in the 17th century and encased in brick during the 18th and 19th centuries, with further alterations in the 20th century. The cross-gable addition is thought to have been added in the late 17th century. The building is now rendered in mellow red brick with a slate roof of irregular-sized slates.

The exterior of the one and a half-storey range presents a three-bay front elevation with a 19th-century gabled porch to the far left containing a mid to late 20th-century door. To the right of the porch is a wide six-light casement window with a segmental arched head, and a four-light dormer window above set between the first two bays, both with 20th-century glazing and frames. A window opening to the far right of the ground floor is boarded over internally with the glazing and frame removed. A brick ridge stack with five chimneypots sits between the second and third bays. The north side elevation is a gable end with a plank and batten loading door to the first floor centre, flanked by two small two-light rectangular window openings, one of which has had its frame removed. An external stair has been removed from this elevation. A catslide-roofed outshut projects from the right of the ground floor, with a partially blocked-up doorway. The rear elevation features late 20th-century patio doors and a doorway to the ground floor right, with a small window above set below the eaves. The outshut to the left has a wide window opening with the frame and glazing removed, and small regular-sized roof slates. The two and a half-storey cross-gable range projects forward on the front elevation with raised brick banding and some later brickwork. Window openings to each floor diminish in width up the range and are boarded over internally with frames and glazing removed. An illegible date stone is set to the gable apex. The south side elevation is inaccessible but boarded-over and blocked-up window openings are visible internally. The rear of the range projects forward and is largely obscured by heavy vegetation, though original early 18th-century brickwork is believed to survive beneath.

Internally, the ground floor features asphalt and tiled floors, while upper floors have floorboard floors. The south ground floor room of the main range (probably originally the parlour of a medieval hall house) contains a heavy 17th-century chamfered cross beam with stops and a large probable medieval seven-light timber diamond-mullioned window to the south wall with original timber frame survival above and below the window opening. The panel infill below the window has been removed and later supports inserted. An adjacent doorway to the west leads into the cross-gable range and stair. A rebuilt stack to the north wall features a substantial timber bressumer and a 19th-century cast-iron stove. The north ground floor room incorporates a later rear outshut with an altered stack to the south wall with a substantial bressumer. A later brick partition wall inserted to the east side creates a bathroom and small corridor. The first floor of the main range includes the south room with a surviving section of square timber framing to the lower part of the south wall, believed to be the original external wall. A rebuilt brick stack sits at the north end of the room with a shallow fireplace opening. A butt-purlin tie beam truss sits hard up against the stack, with a similar truss to the south wall bearing a carpenter's mark to the south face of one of the timbers. A low opening to the left of the central stack connects into the north room. The rafters to both rooms appear to be 19th and 20th century in date.

The two and a half-storey cross-gable range contains a narrow late 17th-century dog-leg stair set to the rear right with a deep carved handrail, carved closed string, square newel posts, and thick turned balusters. A barley-sugar baluster sits at the top of the stair by the second floor landing. A pendant sits to the underside of the stair between the ground floor and first half-landing, though some steps are missing between the ground floor and first half-landing. The front ground floor room contains the south external face of a timber diamond-mullioned window to its north wall. The rear ground floor room has boarded-over windows to the south and west walls, replicated on the first floor room above. The front first floor room contains two ceiling beams with ovolo mouldings, probably re-used from elsewhere, and a plank and batten door to the north wall leading into the south first floor room of the main range. A plank and batten door with three very wide planks and a simple iron latch, probably late 17th-century, leads to the second floor of the cross-gable range. The roof features a substantial ridge beam and side purlins, with 19th and 20th-century rafters.

The hamlet of Collins Green may have medieval origins, suggested by the incorporation of 'green' into its place name. Originally agricultural in nature and characterised by isolated farmsteads, the wider district largely became an area of mining and industry in the 19th and 20th centuries. The property was owned in the 19th century by the wealthy local landowning family, the Bold Houghtons, with the Travers family as tenant farmers. The property remained in active use as a farm until around 1950, after which most of its associated land was sold off. A large later agricultural range to the rear was demolished in the 1970s, along with a room, probably a later extension, to the centre rear of the farmhouse. It has been suggested, though not confirmed, that the building was used to house Italian prisoners of war during the Second World War.