The Old Vicarage and Adjoining Barn, Gellfield Lane, Uppermill

The Old Vicarage and Adjoining Barn, Gellfield Lane, Uppermill

A substantial rural dwelling with adjoining barn, constructed from hammer-dressed, irregularly-coursed millstone grit with graduated stone slate roofing. The complex follows a linear plan, comprising a single-depth, two-cell house of two storeys, a single-cell two-storey extension to the south, and a barn, all contained under the same roof.

The house originally contained a larger housebody with a spiral staircase in the south-east corner (now removed) and a smaller parlour with rooms above. An inglenook fireplace (now removed) was built against the cross wall of the housebody, and a projecting gable stack heated the parlour. Entry was originally through a baffle doorway positioned against the inglenook. The building has since been reordered, with a new entry inserted through a gable doorway into the parlour and stairs installed against the rear wall.

The facade displays a projecting plinth and quoins at the outer north corner of the original house and the right-hand south side of the extension. The earliest section comprises three bays with a central doorway having a basket-headed chamfered surround with a deep monolithic lintel. To the left is a four-light parlour window and to the right a six-light housebody window, both with double-chamfered mullions and cavetto mouldings. The housebody window carries a hoodmould with dropped ends terminating in a circular stylised floral design typical of the 1630s. The first floor contains three similar mullion windows without hoodmoulds: five-lights to the left-hand end, two-lights to the centre, and two-lights to the right. A shaped window sill separates the central and right-hand windows. Two chimney stacks are present: a projecting gable stack and a central ridge stack, both with moulded dripstones.

Bays four and five, built later against the south gable, contain a ground-floor doorway with a square-headed chamfered surround and a reconstructed three-light flat-faced mullion window. The first floor has two two-light flat-faced mullion windows. All windows in this section now have uPVC frames.

The barn is built in narrower-coursed millstone grit with quoins at the outer corner but no projecting plinth. A central cart entry with an opposed winnowing door (now converted to a window) occupies the rear wall. The cart entry appears to have been enlarged and now has chamfered monolithic stone jambs which may be reused and not original; the right-hand jamb bears five holes in its outer face. The lintel is a modern replacement formed from a rolled steel joist faced with stone blocks, with masonry above rebuilt using blocks of varying sizes. The reused masonry contains no voussoirs suggesting an original arched opening. Two blocked doorways with deep monolithic lintels flank the cart entrance at the outer edges of the barn elevation.

The outer north gable of the original house displays shaped kneelers and an inserted doorway to the right of the projecting chimney stack, matching the front elevation design.

The rear elevation of the house is largely blind except for later inserted windows, with various joints and disturbed coursing visible in the original stonework. The barn's rear wall contains a central winnowing door now converted to a window, fitted with projecting iron pintels on the left-hand side.

Internally, the original entrance doorway has an inner lintel formed from reused curved oak pieces suggestive of former cruck blade sections. The roof structure incorporates heavy purlins of reused timbers and a stone cross wall rather than a tie beam. The housebody inglenook has been replaced by a modern fireplace, though the bedroom above retains two stone corbels near the chimney flue apex, indicating a former smoke hood. A mid-18th-century stone fireplace with a narrow mantel-shelf is present on the first floor. The first-floor wall in the south-east corner is curved, marking the location of the former spiral staircase.

The barn contains two queen post trusses with raking struts of roughly-hewn oak and two trenched purlins on each side, some replaced with machine-sawn pine. Rafters and battens of machine-sawn softwood rest on rebuilt brick wall tops. The threshing floor retains a flagged stone surface with stone cobbles in the north and south bays. Two blocked doorways in the inner north gable wall formerly interconnected the barn and house extension. The south bay shows mortices for a former loft floor, with the wall below rendered. The barn masonry demonstrates narrower coursing than the house and extension, with quoins at the outer corner.