Former Dairy

Former Dairy, The Village, Farnley Tyas

A barn dating to around 1672, built in coursed dressed rubble with a corrugated roof. The building comprises three main elements stepped back progressively from east to west, with the largest section of three bays to the south and two progressively narrower sections to the north. The eastern side at the north end is internally divided off from the main building. The structure is single storey and open to the roof throughout.

The east elevation displays the building's most distinctive features. From left to right it shows a single light window with a lintel wider than the opening, a blocked former entrance, two adjacent windows separated by a stone mullion within a former wide entrance with large quoins on the jambs, a small blocked entrance, and a single window under the eaves. The building then steps back, with this section containing an entrance door flanked by small windows with round-arched lintels formed from single square-topped stones and wide jambs and cills each of one stone. A third window in similar style follows. The building steps back again, with a window set in a partly blocked entrance with a heavy truncated pyramid-shaped lintel bearing a worn inscription. The letters WP and GRM are visible, with the date 1672 set within an incised line. A later window has been added to this section.

The west elevation features a four-light window with splayed mullions, now blocked, towards the north end, and an entrance door. Both the south and north elevations have wide entrance doors. The north elevation incorporates large boulders into the structure at the lower right corner.

The roof structure is of 19th-century queen strut construction, with numerous roof lights inserted into the modern roof covering. The building was fitted out as a milking parlour with concrete floors and dairy fittings in the late 20th century. One of the small arched windows adjacent to the entrance door is blocked internally.

The building is part of a group of agricultural buildings and dwellings surrounding a plot at the centre of Farnley Tyas village, including an already-listed house and barn, a further barn dated 1671, and farm cottages. A date stone of 1672, though worn and unclear, accords with nearby structures, particularly the barn immediately to the north which bears a clear date of 1671 within a similarly incised line. The style of the date stone and the original window openings confirm a late 17th-century date. The building appears on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1854, though its exact form is unclear. The northern half was used as dwellings in the early 20th century before conversion to a milking parlour and dairy in the later 20th century. The building is presently unused.