Sawcliffe Farmhouse

Sawcliffe Farmhouse is a late 18th-century farmhouse, likely built for Robert Holgate, with a rear wing of 17th or earlier origins, raised to two storeys in the 19th century. The earlier section is constructed of roughly-coursed limestone rubble, with the east side faced in red brick in a Flemish bond, and limestone ashlar dressings. Later sections are in squared limestone with ashlar and red brick dressings. Brick stacks rise from pantile roofs. The building is T-shaped, comprising a central entrance hall front and a rear wing.

The front facade is two storeys high and three bays wide, displaying a symmetrical design. It features ashlar quoins and a doorcase with an architrave, a fluted frieze, and carved consoles supporting a dentilled pediment. The door is a six-panel design, set beneath a moulded cornice with a three-pane overlight in a panelled reveal. A plaque of the Phoenix Insurance Company is situated above the door. The windows are 19th-century four-pane sashes in flush wood frames with projecting sills and segmental rubbed brick arches. The central first-floor window has margin lights. Brick eaves run along the roofline, which is hipped, and twin stacks are present.

The left return reveals the rear wing, which likely formed part of an earlier east front. It features brick quoins to the first floor, a roughly constructed limestone rubble plinth with a brick and tile string course. Stone steps lead to a plank door; a blocked four-light ashlar double-chamfered mullioned cellar window is to the right, with an eight-pane sash above. To the left is a three-light ashlar ovolo-mullioned window in a chamfered reveal, with a sliding eight-pane sash above. A cyma-moulded ashlar string course runs along the facade, and two first-floor windows have sixteen panes, set in segmental-arched brick surrounds. The stone-coped gables have shaped kneelers on the 18th-century build to the right, while the left gable has brick-edged stone copings. An axial stack is also present.

The right return of the rear wing has scattered fenestration, including three two-light and one large three-light ashlar ovolo-mullioned windows in chamfered reveals, along with a smaller three-light window where the mullions are missing.

Inside the 18th-century section is an open-well main staircase with a ramped and wreathed handrail, and a separate open-well closed-string back staircase with a moulded handrail, both distinguished by column-on-vase balusters with square knops. A moulded stairhall ceiling features a central fan design, and a carved wood chimneypiece with a contemporary iron grate is located on the ground floor to the right. The rear wing contains an ovolo-moulded ceiling beam with cyma stops in the former back kitchen, and a fragmentary leaded casement in a blocked cellar window. An adjoining range to the rear is of no particular historical significance.