Kilnhurst Farmhouse And Attached Kilnhurst House

Kilnhurst Farmhouse and Kilnhurst House

Two attached houses on Kilnhurst Road, forming a complex structure with distinct building phases. Kilnhurst Farmhouse dates to the mid-17th century and incorporates a late 19th-century single-storey addition. Kilnhurst House is later 17th or early 18th century with recorded additions of 1728 and 1766.

The buildings are constructed in large dressed stone with stone slate roofing and stand two storeys high. The south front comprises two separate ranges: Kilnhurst House to the left and the forward-projecting farmhouse to the right. Both are fenestrated with double chamfered mullioned windows to the ground floor and chamfered mullioned windows to the first floor.

Kilnhurst House follows a three-room plan. The first range contains a five-light window (lacking three mullions and opened to a doorway) with a four-light window above, followed by a three-light window to the housebody with a matching three-light over, and a four-light window (possibly a fire-window) to the housebody with a three-light above. The parlour has a five-light window with a three-light window over. A coped gable with kneelers and stack is positioned at the left-hand end. A second large square stack of mid-18th-century date stands at the junction of the housebody and parlour. The return wall reveals the roofline of an earlier single-aisled timber-framed hall with a stylobat attached in line with the front wall. Three corbels with a single light set between them are carried over the recess for slates.

The farmhouse range breaks forward with coped gables, kneelers, and stacks. It contains two cells with double chamfered mullioned and transomed windows featuring a continuous stepped hoodmould over the ground floor windows: a ten-light window with an eight-light above, a ten-light housebody window with an eight-light above, and an eight-light former fire-window. A 19th-century extension projects forward with moulded coping and stone gutter. A large doorway features monolithic jambs and chamfered surround, flanked by two large windows with chamfered surrounds. The right-hand return wall has an extruded stack with coupled diamond-set flues.

Attached to the left-hand return wall of Kilnhurst House is a two-storey single-cell extension with a semi-circular arched taking-in door featuring a raised impost and keystone inscribed "K approached T G 1766", accessed up a flight of broad steps.

The north gable displays a double chamfered mullioned window of five lights (the central light sashed) with a matching window above. The rear of Kilnhurst House has a gabled porch with plinth, copings, and kneelers; the apex has a base for a finial. The doorway has a chamfered surround with the lintel inscribed "W S" set within a tressure. An open 1728 porch has stone seats. A similar baffle entry door opens against the fleck. Above the porch is a three-light window, with a four-light window and three-light over to the left, and a cross-window lacking mullions to the right. The rear of the farmhouse has two-light flat-faced mullioned windows of 20th-century date.

Internally, Kilnhurst House contains an oak-panelled division wall between the western room and a firescreen of board-and-muntin type with readed edges. The close-strung stair has paired turned balusters and a barrel-turned newel. The division wall between the western rooms and housebody is constructed of large single stones which project to the head to carry spine beams and double-thickness wall at first floor. This wall contains two Tudor arched doorways with sunken spandrels and roll moulding, and has a convex moulded head. The fireplace features a segmental arch carried on corbelled jambs with a cyma-moulded surround. There is a carved oak salt cupboard. A queen strut truss with diagonally set ridge spans the building. The farmhouse contains an identical division wall and truss, and it is possible that the roof trusses are reused from the 16th century.