High Melwood Farmhouse

SE 70 SE OWSTON FERRY EPWORTH ROAD (south-west side, off)

11/137 High Melwood Farmhouse

15.7.87

• II

House, now farmhouse. Probably early C18, with earlier origins, for the Acklom family; later C18 - C19 alterations and additions to the west. Brick, colour-washed. Pantile roof. Original section rectangular on plan, double-depth, with 2-room, central-entrance south front; 1- or 2-room addition to left with further single-room extension beyond. South front: 2 storeys, 2 first-floor windows to original section; single-window addition and lower 2-storey extension to left. Entrance to earlier section has C19 part-glazed door beneath plain overlight, flanked by single C19 4-pane sashes with sills beneath brick flat arches. 3-course brick first- floor band. First floor: pair of similar sashes in flush wooden architraves with sills, and smaller blocked windows to centre and right. Similar sashes to left addition. Stepped and dentilled brick eaves cornice. Tall hipped roof to early section with a pair of corniced ridge stacks to left and right returns. Hipped roof and side wall stack to left addition; swept roof to lower extension. Rear of earlier section has single C19 ground-floor sash, brick first-floor band, and pair of small C19-C20 first-floor casements, perhaps in original openings. Not fully investigated. The High Melwood Hall belonging to the Stanhopes is recorded as being a "large stone building" within a moat and surrounded by a park, which was converted to a farm by the Ackloms who succeeded John Stanhope after his death in 1705. The C19 alterations were probably undertaken for the Skipwith family. An unusual survival in a prominent position. Empty and disused at time of resurvey. W B Stonehouse, The History and Topography of the Isle of Axholme, 1839, pp 256-260; W Read, History of The Isle Of Axholme, 1858, pp 317-8.

Listing NGR: SE7975802315