Upper Foot Farm Cottage Upper Foot Farmhouse

Upper Foot Farmhouse and Upper Foot Farm Cottage, Sowerby Bridge

A farmhouse now divided into two dwellings, situated on the west side of Burnley Road at Luddenden Foot. The building is dated 1659 (with initials 'ESS' on the datestone), though it probably incorporates an earlier timber core, with 18th and 19th century additions and alterations.

The house is constructed of coursed rubble with a stone slate roof. It has an L-shaped plan with a through passage, facing south, of two storeys and two cells, with three first-floor windows. A cross-wing projects to the right, in line with the front elevation, and there are rear wings to both the central and left cells. The building features ashlar quoins throughout.

The left-hand cell contains two tall chamfered window surrounds, now with a fixed window and a sash with glazing bars, positioned to the left of a stop-chamfered, quoined doorway with cyma moulding, a notched lintel and the datestone above. The first floor has a four-light window (now reduced to two lights) and a two-light window (now one light), both with chamfered mullions. The central cell and cross-wing each have an eight-light window with double-chamfered mullions and a king mullion, set beneath a continuous dripmould that rises above the door and terminates to the left in a round stop and to the right in a diamond-and-heart stop. The first floor of the central cell has a four-light now two-light chamfered mullion window, while the cross-wing has a stepped five-light double-chamfered mullion window with a transom, dripmould and a blind inserted light to the right. The gables feature shaped kneelers and coping. A renewed ridge stack stands above the door, and a quoined, offset, corniced ashlar external stack is positioned at the right end. A pent porch dating to around 1980 is attached to the right and is not of special architectural interest.

At the rear, the cross-wing has a quoined, shouldered external stack. To its right, a door has been inserted on the ground floor (leading to No. 5) with a round-arched stair window to its right and a two-light chamfered mullion window above. To the left on the first floor (at ground level due to the slope of the hill) is a chamfered, quoined Tudor-arched doorway. The central wing has a quoined 18th century doorway and ridge stack. The right return contains a three-light chamfered mullion window on each floor to the right of the stack. The left return features 19th century door and window openings, with ground-floor openings breaking into a blocked former chamfered mullion window. The rear wing consists of two bays: the left bay has an added single-storey range projecting at right angles with quoins and pent roof; the right bay has a much restored five-light double-chamfered mullion window with a four-light now two-light chamfered window above, and an added pent porch masking a blocked chamfered Tudor-arched doorway into the rear of the main range.

The interior retains significant period features. The central house body contains a large stop-chamfered, quoined, segmental-arched fireplace with the arch cut away, and stop-chamfered spine beams. The cross-wing has a fireplace with a reused Tudor-arched lintel and spliced stop-chamfered spine beams, one of which shows mortices for a former partition wall. The central rear wing contains a mid to late 18th century dog-leg stair with turned balusters.

On the first floor, the cross-wing has a small chamfered Tudor-arched fireplace in the front room and a board and muntin partition between the front and rear rooms. The roof truss features jowled wall posts, a king post and A-struts, with large scantling rafters. The room over the house body has two large scantling tie-beams, with the rest of the trusses concealed. The rear room of the left wing has a cambered tie-beam with mortices in the soffit for studs of a former closing wall, supporting a king post and V-struts.

Several of the external decorative features and initials on the datestone are identical to those found at Hand Carr Farmhouse, Booth House Road, which is dated 1640.