55, The Village

Semi-detached cottage of late 17th or early 18th-century date, with 19th and 20th-century alterations.

The cottage is built of dressed coursed stone under a stone slate roof with plain stone dressings and large quoins. The roof features raised gables with large stone kneelers and two ridge stacks positioned at either end. The building is two storeys at the front and single storey to the rear, with a catslide roof. Internally, it follows a two-cell plan with a rear extension.

The front elevation has an off-centre entrance with one 3-light window to the right and two windows to the left (one 2-light and one 3-light). The 2-light window replaces an earlier doorway. At first floor are two 3-light windows. All windows have been replaced in the 20th or 21st century with dark wood frames. The left return gable end contains two ground floor windows, both offset to the left: a small arched single light in a heavy stone surround, and a single rectangular light in an altered opening. A first floor window to the left is square with the remains of a central mullion. The front kneeler is notably higher and shorter than that on the left side. The building adjoins a barn to its left running at right angles; at lower level the structures appear continuous, but above approximately 1.5 metres they are separate builds with large quoins marking the cottage's edge. The rear elevation is single storey, stepped back where the adjoining barn meets it. A single 20th-century ground floor window is set within a larger blocked opening with a heavy concrete lintel that does not extend to ground level. The roof contains a single light. The cottage is joined to another cottage to the right.

Internally, the front door opens through an inner lobby into a living room with a stone fireplace that projects into the room and features a chamfered stone surround. Three chamfered beams with chamfer stops at each end cross the room. Beyond this is the outshut, now incorporated into the living space but with a stub wall surviving. A small pantry lies to the right at a lower level. To the left, a passage leads to 20th-century stairs and a second room, also with chamfered beams and a similar fireplace with an altered lintel. The small arched window is immediately to the right of the fireplace. Stairs rise to the upper floor, which contains two main bedrooms to the front and one small bedroom and a bathroom to the rear. The rear rooms contain large purlin timbers. Most of the roof structure dates to the 19th or 20th century.

The cottage forms part of a larger farmstead complex at the centre of Farnley Tyas village. It is attached to another cottage of similar size and adjoins a barn at right angles to the rear; that barn bears a dated lintel stone of 1671. Separated from the front by approximately 0.5 metres is a further barn, part of which was formerly in domestic use and is dated 1672. Across a small courtyard at the gable end stands a listed Grade II house with attached barn.

The pair of cottages of which this is one appear on the 1854 Ordnance Survey map but are clearly earlier in date. They were likely built at around the same time as the dated buildings to either side, or soon after. The small arched window in the gable end probably dates to this period. The front elevation was likely raised and refronted in the late 18th or early 19th century, when the current window openings were established; this explains the higher front gable kneeler and the more regular stonework of the front elevation. The 1893 Ordnance Survey map shows the two current cottages as four units, of which the right-hand two were joined by 1906. The left-hand pair, comprising this cottage, were joined sometime after 1936.