The Barracks

This is a house dating back to the 14th century, with significant additions and alterations in the late 16th century and later, including the 18th, 19th, and mid-20th centuries. The house is timber-framed with plastered infill, partially rebuilt using thinly coursed yellow sandstone rubble, and with a gable end constructed from dressed Hoar Edge Grit sandstone. It has a plain tile roof.

The original structure comprises a 2½-bay hall range from the 14th century, with a projecting gabled cross-wing of 2 bays added in the late 16th century. The 14th-century framing features square panels and large arch braces. The 16th-century framing is characterized by closely-spaced uprights with middle rails (on the side and rear walls) and square panels with parallel diagonal struts forming lozenge patterns. The jettied gable ends of the cross-wing have an ovolo-moulded bressumer (a projecting timber beam) supported by carved brackets and include redundant crown-post trusses with V-struts.

The building is two storeys high, with the cross-wing incorporating one storey and an attic. The west front has a large ridge stack located off-centre to the left, marking its junction with the cross-wing. This stack has a dressed sandstone base, weathering, and three red brick shafts with oversailing tops. An integral stone corner stack sits at the front to the right. The right-hand range features first-floor and ground-floor 2-light wooden casement windows. There’s a catslide roof over a central 20th-century lean-to addition with windows, and a hipped roof over a glazed porch on the right with a boarded door. The cross-wing has a 4-light attic casement and a ground-floor 3-light casement with a glazed door. A straight joint in the hall range indicates a former medieval hall and a later 18th-century stone addition. A fire insurance plate is visible in the right-hand gable end. Timber framing is visible at the rear of the hall range.

Inside, the hall range has three crown-post trusses, simple in design except for their cusped down braces. Evidence of smoke blackening is present. A ceiling inserted around 1600 in the hall range features chamfered beams with ogee stops. A large hall fireplace has chamfered dressed sandstone reveals and a chamfered wooden lintel. The cross-wing features a central collar and tie-beam truss (lacking queen struts) with V-struts and pairs of lower, chamfered purlins with wind braces. The ground-floor of the cross-wing has ovolo-moulded ceiling beams, and a large open fireplace with chamfered stone reveals and a chamfered lintel. The hall range may have originally been longer, but the current end bay is probably from the 18th century.