10, Firwood Fold

This is a Grade I listed house located at 10 Firwood Fold, likely dating from the 16th century. It features an internal timber frame, with the exterior clad in coursed and squared stone and rendered on the side elevations. The roof is thatched. The building is one-and-a-half storeys tall and has a two-unit plan, with the gable facing the street. The gable wall includes a four-light stone mullioned window with a drop-ended hoodmould on the ground floor, and a two-light horizontally sliding sash window above. The roof is asymmetrical and has a brick stack on a stone plinth rising from the right-hand corner. The original entrance, now disused, is located adjacent to the gable in the long return, which is mostly blind. The current entrance is towards the rear in a 20th-century extension.

Inside, the house retains the two-unit layout typical of a small yeoman's house from the 16th or early 17th century. It has an internal timber-framed partition wall that incorporates a staircase, and a corner fireplace in the front room. The moulded jambs of the original four-centred arch are present, although the arch itself is from the 20th century. The rear room features a lateral stack, likely an insertion. Each room has roughly chamfered cross beams. The roof structure consists of three raised cruck trusses with collars, which are braced to the purlins. These trusses are located in the internal cross wall and next to each gable wall, suggesting that the roof structure may have originally included a hipped gablet at the apex of each gable wall. Historically, this house is significant as the birthplace of Samuel Crompton in 1753.