Ellel Grange Home Farm and Walled Garden including stables, coach house and coachman's cottage, farmhouse, agricultural and horticultural buildings, and associated walls, yard and gates

Home farm complex for Ellel Grange, dated 1857 to 1862, probably designed by John Weightman of Liverpool for William Preston. The farm complex served the main house and is built of red and buff sandstone, probably Sherwood sandstone from an estate quarry. Roofs are covered with blue slate, stone slate and clay tiles, with timber windows and doors throughout.

The complex forms an L-shaped arrangement of mostly two-storey buildings with some gaps, aligned principally north-west to south-east, with a smaller range at the northern end aligned south-west to north-east.

STABLES, COACH HOUSE AND COACHMAN'S COTTAGE

An L-shaped, two-storey range at the south-eastern end of the complex, enclosing a walled courtyard accessed via a gateway with lodges.

The stables face south-west with a symmetrical principal façade. The coach house and cottage range project at the left, with a single-storey lean-to outshut at the right. The walling is regularly coursed and tooled, with dressed window and door surrounds having chamfered margins. The principal façade has two wide outer bays and a narrow central bay, each with a first-floor circular pitching-eye with cardinal-point keystones, now fitted with windows. The central bay has a steep gable containing a stone shield inscribed in relief P/W & M (for William and Margaret Preston), with a lighthouse crowned with a Liver bird, a lion, and the date 1857. The eaves and verges overhang, with recesses in the purlin-ends.

The ground floor has replacement windows at the margins and centre, separated by two segmental-arched vestibule openings with rusticated voussoirs and alternating quoins. The right vestibule has an inserted recessed glazed screen. The slightly wider left vestibule has inner walls and openings with dressed surrounds or rusticated quoins. Doorways in the left and right returns are infilled, one with a window, with a window and door opening facing the arch. Inserted stone steps access the raised floor. The clay tile roof has a rusticated stone ridge-stack centrally in the right-hand bay.

The south-east wall matches the front, with coursed, dressed stone, a first-floor pitching-eye and projecting verges. The ground-floor outshut has an inserted window, with a rusticated pillar at the right. The gable has a decorative wrought-iron sailing-ship weather vane, probably a reference to Preston's mercantile interests.

The north-east rear wall is of coursed squared rubble with dressed window surrounds, and mostly two-light mullioned window openings with replacement windows.

The north-west wall is contiguous with the rear wall of the coach house and cottage, with details matching the stable front. This wall is gabled at the left over the former stables hayloft, with a first-floor door linked by a later six-stepped brick-and-concrete bridge to the adjacent combination barn, plus an inserted window, and original ground-floor window with eight-over-eight sash. To the right, the coach house has a ground-floor window with eight-over-eight sash. The cottage has an eight-over-eight sash window at the left with a five-over-five casement upstairs, and a central doorway with vertical-plank door, reached by a direct flight of stone steps. Immediately to the right of the steps is a cellar door, with two eight-over-eight sash windows stacked above it. To the right of these is a tall, six-over-fifteen pane casement stair-window. The rear roof pitch is covered with slate. The angle at the right has alternating quoins. The south-west cottage wall is blind, with similar quoins at the south-east angle.

The south-east wall of the cottage and coach house has details matching the stable façade. The cottage at the left is a single, wide, gabled bay with stacked central eight-over-eight sashes, and a doorway to the left with moulded cornice, slightly damaged, above, and vertical-panelled door. The coach house has a smaller gable, with unglazed pitching-eye, and segmental arch similar to the stable vestibules but taller, with timber doors. The cottage has a ridge stack to the right of the gable.

The cottage interior was inspected only from the front door as its floors were unsafe. The parlour retains skirtings and door surrounds, and a large fireplace with cooking range, mantle-shelf and built-in cupboards. Some lath-and-plaster ceiling survives. The timber stair is accessed by a vertical-panelled door from the parlour. The pantry retains some tiling and shelving. The upper floor structure survives with its wooden floorboards. The stables and coach house interiors were not inspected.

The cobbled yard retains its original surface apart from an inserted strip of flagstones, and is surrounded by a tall stone wall matching the principal frontages, with stone coping. At the angle with the cottage, this has diminishing quoins down to yard level, with a wrought-iron gate and stone steps down to the level of the adjacent lane. Six tall rusticated piers flank the main gateway. Five have flat, pyramidal caps but the most northerly forms a chimney for one of the two small lodges directly flanking the gateway, which have hipped, graduated slate roofs and details matching the principal frontages. Each lodge has a sash window in the entrance passage, and a doorway facing the yard. The gate piers have wrought-iron lanterns, now missing their glazing.

FARM BUILDINGS AND FARMHOUSE

A linear range in the centre of the complex, comprising a small combination barn, stable-with-shed, pigsties, looseboxes, farmhouse and former store, with a gap for the entrance to the walled garden between the first two buildings. The style and details are similar to the stable and coach house range.

The combination barn is gabled at both ends, with a concrete-tile roof. The ground floor is in red stone, the upper floor grey. The front façade has three bays, with a shippon window to the left, a left-of-centre segmental-arched cart entrance, and a smaller segmental-arched entrance at the right, with a window above. The walling is regularly coursed, with tooled alternating quoins. The two arches have tooled voussoirs and quoins, with raised keystones. The shippon window has a tooled stone surround with a deep lintel, and a projecting, stooled sill. The upper window has a stone surround with a projecting sill. To the right of the main entrance are two vertical ventilation slits. At the right, stone steps ascend the end wall, and towards the rear these are linked by a brick-and-concrete bridge to the stable and coach house block.

The north-west wall has three doorways for shippon passages, all raised. The two at the left are now blocked in stone with windows, the right retaining a vertical plank door with missing overlight. The surrounds are tooled and quoined. The walling is regularly coursed and rock-faced, but less regular above the original gable line, with a square owl-hole stone beneath the projecting verges, which have recesses in the purlin-ends. The north-east rear wall is of regularly-coursed squared rubble with window to the right, ventilation slits opposing those in the front wall, and small ground-floor windows to the left. The south-east wall has steps to a central first-floor door with tooled, quoined surround, which is flanked by windows with tooled projecting sills.

The combination barn retains a flagged barn floor and partial shippon interior including a stone stall divider. It has king-post roof trusses with struts. The wall dividing the stable from the shed is of plastered brick and has a door from the hayloft, with small platform.

A modern gate spans the gap between the combination barn and the stable-with-shed. This building stands end-on to the yard, with a gable pitching-eye, glazed, and central doorway with overlight, flanked by casement windows. The front wall is of coursed, dressed stone, with quoined angles. The side returns and rear wall are of squared rubble, the rear wall forming part of the circuit around the garden, and having a coped gable. The shed runs across the rear portion and is open-sided to the south-east, with quoined jambs.

Adjoining the north-west wall of the stable-with-shed is a range of three lean-to pigsties against the garden wall. These have a graduated slate roof, regularly-coursed stone front wall, and doorways with ashlar quoins and lintels. Coped stone walls divide the three pens, terminating with round-headed stone pillars. Between the pillars are purpose-made cast-iron panel fences incorporating a feeding trough, which bear the legend W BENNETT LIVERPOOL 1862.

Adjoining the pigsties is a block of three looseboxes with a hayloft above, with two pitching-eyes matching those of the stables, glazed at the right. Below a row of ventilation grilles, each loosebox has a window to the left of its door, all with quoined surrounds. These and the quoins to the angles are all ashlar. The centre box retains its split door with overlight, and six-over-six sash window. The other doors and windows are timber replacements, with a modern metal gate protecting the right-hand door. The ridge of the graduated slate roof has the frame of a wooden louvred vent. The south-east wall is gabled, and blind except for a first-floor, six-over-six sash window with stone surround. The rear wall is of coursed squared rubble, and blind except for ventilation slits with iron boxes and stone lintels. Stone gutter corbels project. The north-west wall is obscured by the adjoining farmhouse. The loosebox interiors have modern finishes.

The farmhouse is deeper in plan than the looseboxes and so it projects with a blind south-east wall, but is under a contiguous roof, with two stone, corniced stacks. The south-west front is symmetrical, and of three bays with a central doorway, and quoins matching the looseboxes. The door surround is moulded, and the door vertically panelled, with glazing to the upper three panels, and an overlight. The flanking windows have full-height plain surrounds with ashlar aprons below the windowsills, and deep bottom sills the height of the two steps to the front door. The three first-floor windows have exaggerated quoining and projecting, stooled sills. All the windows are PVC replacements. The north-west wall is gabled, of coursed squared rubble with quoins at the rear angle, and has a first-floor window with plain surround. The ground floor is obscured by a single-storey link to the great barn. The rear is of coursed squared rubble. A small first-floor window and small ground-floor window have stone lintels and sills, and the large kitchen window has a squared stone surround.

The link-block has a tall, coped front wall, with a Jacobean-style moulded stone door surround with a decorative lintel, dated 1699. Its rear and side walls are of random squared rubble with alternating quoins, with two-light chamfered mullioned windows in each side, and a similar three-light rear window. The link block retains stone larder slabs and pantry shelves, the six-over-six sash window of the kitchen, and a datestone inscribed 1699/IC, with a swollen waist to the letter I.

The farmhouse interior retains some cornicing, a cloakroom with shelving and a panelled door, dining room cupboards and a living room stone fire surround.

A wall of coursed, squared, rock-faced stone with a triangular coping course surrounds the yard on its south-west and north-west sides, with a curved corner, and pedestrian gates for the farmhouse and cottage. Opposite the entrance to the walled garden, this wall has a formal entrance splay. All the entrances have triangular-headed stone posts. A straight wall of the same design divides the yard from the front garden of the cottage, with a pedestrian gate from the yard into the garden.

LARGE BARN AND OUTSHUT

An L-shaped range forming the north-western corner of the complex, comprising a large combination barn aligned north-west to south-east, and an outshut aligned south-west to north-east.

The barn's principal façade faces south-west and is of grey sandstone in finely-jointed, regularly-coursed, horizontally-tooled, squared blocks with dressed margins. A two-course plinth is of rock-faced blocks and slightly projects. The ends are gabled, with copings, and the roof is of graduated stone flags. The barn has two wide bays. The left-hand bay has a central segmental-arched cart opening with keystone and modern timber doors, and a small window to the left. The right-hand bay has a central door with an open pitching-eye above, with cardinal-point keystones. Guttering is plastic, but on original metal stays.

The south-east wall of the barn is largely obscured by the screen wall of the block linking it to the farmhouse, but is of watershot courses and has a square owlhole stone in the gable. The rear wall was only partially inspected but is also of watershot courses, with a ground-floor window at the left with a squared stone surround, and a higher-level, internally-blocked window at the right with tooled, wide-quoined surround. At the north end it is partially obscured by the attached outshut. The north-west wall is watershot and has an owlhole matching the other gable. It has three shippon-passage doorways with exaggerated quoin-stone jambs and two vertical-plank doors, the left-hand doorway having a later, sliding, metal door.

The barn's walls mostly retain lime-wash or lime-plaster. The north-western shippon interiors have been modernised, with a large concrete podium and a cross wall inserted to the right of the central doorway. The central space has a screed floor and is open to the roof, which has king-post trusses with struts, and retains some hewn purlins. The southern end of the barn has a hayloft floor, and shippon interior with a cobbled floor, raised standings and some timber stalling.

To the north-east of the barn, the attached outshut has a front wall flush with the north-west end of the barn. The barn's quoins form the right jamb of a doorway at the right, whose lintel is also keyed into the barn. The walling is of roughly-dressed, regularly-coursed, squared stone. The roof is of graduated slate, with a full hip at the left, and a collapsed former hipped roof at the right. The right-hand half is blind at first-floor except for a small square vent, and has a taller left-hand and shorter right-hand doorway, both with deep lintels and quoined jambs. The left half has two wide openings divided by a dressed-stone pillar, below a single squared wooden lintel which is chamfered, with stepped, lamb's-tongue stops. Above these are two square windows, one with a horned, three-over-three pane sash, with quoined jambs and stooled sills, and a doorway with quoined jambs. The left angle is also quoined. All the quoins and other dressings are tooled, with finely-dressed margins. The north-east wall is of squared rubble and largely obscured by the north-east range of buildings. The rear is of slobbered rubble near the barn, with a first-floor window with squared surround, jambs and lintel fallen outwards in 2020. To the right of this it is cement-rendered.

The outshut has some cobbled floors, altered timber stalling, a loosebox with screed floor, and a shippon interior with a cobbled floor, raised standing, curved-timber stall divider and timber tethering post. The first floor was not inspected but has partially collapsed adjoining the barn, allowing a view of a doorway into the loft over the barn's northerly shippon space. In 2017 the lime-plastered and torched walls and roof of the upper floor were visible but in 2020 these have collapsed into the building.

GARDEN WALL AND NORTHERN RANGE

A circuit of walls enclosing a walled garden, with a range of buildings attached to the outer face of the north-west wall.

All legs of the wall have flat stone copings. The wall's south-eastern face matches the wall around the stable yard, with regularly-coursed, squared and tooled stone, and rusticated stone piers with pyramidal caps at its corners and gateway. The gateway is central and has a vertical-planked door with decorative iron strap hinges. The southern pier supports the roof of the stable outshut, and thus has no cap. The wall steps down to this level, with a curved ramp. The other outer faces are of coursed squared rubble, including the north-west face where this is now enclosed by the northern range of buildings. This leg also has curved ramps to a slightly-raised central section. The north-eastern leg has four large triangular outer buttresses, and ramps up at its northern corner to form a verge to the former glasshouse roofs. At this northern corner an irregular vertical joint marks the addition of the lean-to northern range of buildings. Inner faces, where visible, are of brick, laid in header bond with spacers, and are partially rendered where the glasshouses formerly stood.

The northern range runs the length of the north-western leg of the garden wall, abutting the outshut of the barn. This is a single-storey, lean-to range of buildings comprising seven principal internal spaces beneath a continuous, graduated slate roof. The walling is of random-coursed, roughly-squared stone, with dressed surrounds to openings. Most have quoined jambs. Some of the frontage was obscured at inspection in 2017 by vegetation.

At the left, space 1 has a vertical-plank door and appears to have been unlit, although a hole in the roof might formerly have been a skylight. Space 2 has a two-light mullioned window, vertical plank door and two small skylights. Spaces 3 and 4 each have a window, and they have paired doorways. The raised portion of the garden wall rises above these two spaces, and space 3 has a square brick chimney of domestic scale. Space 5 has a small skylight and a wide, two-light window with stopped-chamfer mullion. Space 6 has a single window but no visible external doorway, and three or four skylights. Space 7 is open-fronted under an iron lintel.

The interiors were partially inspected. Most have plastered or lime-washed end walls but no finish to the garden wall, and torched slates. Space 1 has a bench built into the north-eastern wall. Space 3 has a stone flag floor, partially-surviving timber panelling and cupboards, and a chimney breast with iron cooking range and mantle shelf. Space 7 has a doorway in its side wall adjoining space 6.

At the northern corner stands a tapering stone gatepost.