Manor Farm Cottage

Manor Farm Cottage

This house dates to 1730 with an earlier wing of probable 17th-century date.

The building is constructed from coursed coal measure sandstone, locally quarried, with a slate roof and red brick chimney stacks. It is arranged on an approximately rectangular plan, comprising an 18th-century front range facing south with a short, earlier cross wing. The entrance porch, extensions on the east and west ends, and conservatory are all of late 20th-century date and do not contribute to the architectural quality of the original design.

The original two-storey 18th-century house has three bays and a shallow pitched roof with red brick chimney stacks at the gable ends. The central six-panelled front door and its surround are of late 20th-century date. It is flanked by eight-over-eight pane sash windows; the ground-floor and first-floor sash windows, together with their sills and lintels, are also of late 20th-century date. A late 20th-century gabled entrance porch projects from the west end of the façade. Adjoining the west gable end is a single-storey projection, thought possibly to have been a dairy or laundry. Adjoining the east gable end is a slightly set-back, late 20th-century, two-storey, two-bay extension in a similar style to the original house. A conservatory is attached to the east gable end.

At the rear are three gabled cross wings, the outer ones being late 20th-century extensions. The central wing, the oldest part of the house, is one and a half storeys high. It has large stone quoins and a steeply pitched roof with a red brick chimney stack at the gable end and a skylight on the west slope. The east side is lit at ground-floor level by a two-light mullioned window with a chamfered central mullion and tooled surround. There is a blocked-up mullion in the gable end.

The front door opens into a small hall with a rear straight-flight stair. The rooms either side have chamfered bridging beams with simple moulded chamfer stops and joists which retain remnants of white and beige paint. The room in the first bay, to the left of the hall, has a wide plain stone chimneypiece with carved console jambs, now fitted with an Aga. On the south wall is a built-in cupboard with raised and fielded panels and H-hinges. The room in the third bay has a simple stone fireplace with a plain mantelshelf and jambs, and to the left a small square opening framed in stone. On the ground floor, the 18th-century two-panelled doors retain strap hinges and their original frames which have a roll moulding. The single-storey room adjoining the first bay, now a fitted kitchen, is thought to have been a dairy or laundry and it retains a roughly chamfered bridging beam with hooks. On the first floor the roof purlins are exposed. In the rear wing there is a plain stone fireplace with a mantelshelf supported by roughly consoled stones at the top of the jambs. On the first floor the wooden doorframe into the cross wing survives, as do the truncated purlins which were sawn through to make way for the 18th-century range. Underneath the cross wing is a cellar with a bow-shaped ceiling.