Akroyd Farm Cottage Akroyd Farmhouse

Akroyd Farmhouse and Akroyd Farm Cottage

A late 16th-century house with a late 17th-century cross-wing attached to a hall range, which replaced an earlier timber-framed single-storey hall. Evidence of this earlier building still survives within the structure. The house is constructed of large dressed stone to the wing and smaller coursed stone to the hall range, standing two storeys tall with a T-shaped plan and three-room through-passage layout.

The service end features a 6-light double chamfered mullioned window with a 3-light chamfered mullioned window above on the first floor. A Tudor arched doorway has notches taken out of the corners of its lintel, possibly to support timber framing, and may be earlier than the main structure. The housebody displays 9-light double chamfered mullioned windows with 4-light chamfered mullioned windows over on the first floor. Stone gutter brackets are present at intervals.

The cross-wing breaks forward from the main wall and includes a small chamfered light set in the side wall at first-floor level. The south front is distinguished by double chamfered mullioned windows with ovolo moulded mullions and an inner surround. A 6-light window with king mullion has a hoodmould with straight return. Above is a 5-light window on the first floor, with a drip mould beneath and a small chamfered light to the apex. A coped gable with kneelers and a crocketed finial (a replacement) crowns this elevation. An inserted 19th-century doorway to the right of the ground floor window has monolithic jambs and an oak plank door set in a Tudor arched frame. The left-hand return wall of the service end has a 2-light window at mezzanine level. The rear of the wing features a 6-light window with three mullions removed, topped by a hoodmould, and a 4-light window with hoodmould on the first floor. A small chamfered light to the apex is now blocked. A coped gable with kneelers and a fine crocketed finial (replaced from the demolished White Hall, Ovenden, Halifax) completes this elevation.

A single-storey outshut with a catslide roof extends under the main range. The outshut is late 18th-century over an inserted cellar, though it may replace an earlier aisle. Its 4-light window has lost two mullions. The set-back main range has a through-passage doorway with a monolithic lintel and chamfered surround, with a small light above. The right-hand return wall displays double chamfered mullioned windows with plain chamfered mullions of 3 lights on the ground floor and the same arrangement on the first floor, flanked by 2-light windows either side. Windows to the front and nearly all to the wing retain small-paned leaded lights with metal casement openers. A large stack to the hall range backs onto the through-passage. Another stack rises from the ridge of the wing, though it previously had a lateral extruded stack now gone.

The interior of the housebody contains four painted glass panels, believed to date from the 16th century. One bears the initials "A E", another displays an elaborate merchants' mark, and two show heraldic designs. At the dais end of the hall are two fine Tudor arched doorways with deeply sunken spandrels and richly moulded surrounds. The roof line of the earlier single-storey building remains visible on the wing wall. Many re-used timbers with half-lap joints suggest the original structure may have incorporated cruck framing.

The wing contains the finest carved ceiling in the Upper Calder Valley. It features a finely reeded spine beam, floor joists and head beam supporting panelled wall with board and muntin panelling, into which an oak Tudor arched doorway is set. Panelling extends to the first floor within the soffit of a tie-beam of an open king-post truss with 14 "V" struts and stop-chamfered purlins.

This is a fine example of a yeoman clothier's house, displaying the classic through-passage and hall-and-cross-wing plan characteristic of its period.