Bent Head

This is an early 17th-century house located on Widdop Road, Heptonstall, built of large dressed stone with a stone slate roof. It has a single aisle to the rear and a three-room through-passage plan.

The front elevation has double-chamfered mullioned windows on the ground floor and single-chamfered windows above. A simple gabled porch with coping, kneelers, and a chamfered surround, likely added in the early 18th century, protects the doorway, which itself has a cyma moulded surround. The ground floor windows include a 2-light window over a 3-light window, a 3-light fire-window over a 2-light window, a 6-light window with a king mullion to the main housebody with a 3-light window above it, and a 5-light window to the parlour with a 4-light window above it on the first floor. The right-hand return wall is visible, featuring a 3-light window to the rear aisle and a 3-light window with arched lights and sunken spandrels on the first floor. The building has a coped gable with kneelers and one stack, with two further stacks to the ridge; one of these is situated behind the through passage.

The rear of the house has two windows of 2 lights with cavetto moulded surrounds and mullions. The doorway to the through passage features a deep, stop-chamfered surround, and there is a 4-light chamfered mullioned window to the first floor of the service end.

Inside, the doorway directly accesses the service end, potentially formerly separated by a panelled screen. The housebody retains an oak-panelled fire screen, a moulded bressumer, and a heckpost that extends to the tie-beam of a king-post truss with a diamond set ridge, alongside reeded spine beams and floor joists. A stone, segmental arched fireplace features large skewbacks and a stop-chamfered surround. This is a fine example of a yeoman clothier’s house, notable for retaining its original fenestration and for its bressumer, which is wedged in the joint of the heckpost – a feature known locally as a witch post.