Byre at Seddon's Fold

Byre with accommodation and storage above, late C17.

MATERIALS: constructed of dressed, coursed sandstone with quoins and stone flag roof laid in diminishing courses

PLAN: two storeys with gables to N and S, an eastern feeding passage with N and S doors, and three stock entrances in the W wall. The first floor was originally divided into a store or granary and some unheated accommodation, accessed externally via a first-floor door in the NW corner.

EXTERIOR: forming the eastern side of a farmstead also comprising house (qv), cruck-barn (qv) and stable (qv), occupying the highest point at the W end of a tongue of land formed by the westernmost meander of the River Irwell, where it is joined by the River Croal.

The W elevation has three low entrances with very deep lintels, the two to the left being blocked; a blocked window with arch-head lintel to the left of the central door; a first-floor blocked window (at left) with one mullion, probably originally of three lights, and a blocked central small window. Various original vents have been blocked and several others appear to be inserted. There are some very long quoin stones and some short but the pattern is not regular.

The N elevation has a first floor entrance with a stone lintel that extends to form a kneeler for a coped gable, the copings being absent. The eastern kneeler is broken. There is also a square pitching hole to the left hand side of the gable with monolithic lintel and slab jambs; the jambs rest on long impost stones but the central sill stone is missing. At ground floor to the left is another monolithic low lintel for the N entrance to the feeding passage, while centrally there is a good quality three light mullion window, now blocked, with chamfered arched lintels; this window might be reused from an earlier building.

The E elevation has two small blocked windows at ground floor, similar to that in the W wall. The long quoins alternate regularly except adjacent to the southern feeding passage door where the lintel prevents it.

The S elevation has a large inserted opening adjacent to the feeding passage. The gable has been rebuilt reusing original material and has a louvred opening with stone sill. The E kneeler is broken and the copings and W kneeler are absent.

INTERIOR: the interior has various blocked openings, vents and niches, together with two corbels, possibly relating to a stair. The roof is predominantly hewn members with two collar-and-tie-beam trusses with raking struts, two rows of entrenched side purlins, diamond-set ridge purlins and rafters. The N truss has mortices for internal partitioning and the NW wall the remains of plaster at first floor. The S bearing ends of the purlins rest on an inserted structure comprising a cross beam bearing on the walls, with five posts, all made from telegraph poles or similar. The stone flag floor survives in the N half with the seatings for upright stone partitions.