Miry Fold Cottages

A pair of late 18th-century weavers' cottages, now used as a store, stand on Briers Brow near Wheelton. The cottages are constructed of coursed sandstone with a stone slate roof. They form a long, single-depth, four-bay range. Each cottage occupies two bays, and they share a central chimney stack, with the outer bays appearing to have been unheated. The cottages are two storeys high. Each has a doorway offset slightly towards the centre of the range, with simple surrounds. Two windows are present on each floor. The windows between the doors and those at the first floor of the outer bays are rectangular, with some being three-light sliding sashes and others two-light fixed windows, all with small panes. The ground-floor windows of the outer bays differ: the right-hand window has five lights with flush mullions (two lights are blocked), while the left-hand window, originally similar, has been altered to create coupled vertical rectangular windows—one fixed with four panes and the other now a top-hung casement. A single, two-flue brick chimney is on the ridge. The rear elevation is largely blind, with a doorway and window in each outer bay. The interior of the cottages has not been inspected. This represents a rare example of a little-altered domestic-industrial building, comparable to Lilac Cottage in Clayton-le-Woods, which shares a similar linear arrangement, though with loomshops centrally located.