Micklewood Farmhouse

Micklewood Farmhouse (now divided into Nos. 1 and 2) is a 2-storey farmhouse with attic and basement (to right), built circa 1680 for Waties Corbett, with early 18th-century and mid- to late 19th-century alterations and additions. The building is constructed in red brick with grey sandstone ashlar dressings and a hipped plain tile roof, arranged in a shallow U-plan.

The principal front features a 1:2:1 window arrangement with 18th-century sixteen-parted glazing bar sashes with stone lintels. The central doorway has a 6-panel raised and fielded door (a mid-20th-century copy) set within rounded stone reveals with foliage-carved impost blocks and keystone, surmounted by a large segmental brick pediment with moulded dentils. The facades display a plinth to the right with chamfered top, two dentil brick string courses at lintel level, and a wooden dentil eaves cornice. The roof is punctuated by four mid- to late 19th-century gabled brick eaves dormers with 6-pane sashes. Rendered blind windows occupy the inner returns of the wings. A straight joint visible just to the left of the central door indicates earlier structural modification. The right-hand return front contains two windows, with the ground-floor right-hand example showing evidence of alteration, and a chamfered stone mullioned basement window to the left. The left-hand return front features a blocked first-floor window to the right.

Flanking external lateral brick stacks with chamfered offsets and pitched-roofed links to the attic rise at either side. The larger left-hand stack has a T-shaped shaft. A late 18th-century two-storey gabled wing with attic rises centrally at the rear, featuring a 16-pane glazing bar sash and dentil brick eaves cornice. A pair of lower flanking gabled wings flank this rear addition, with the left-hand example containing an external brick end stack.

The interior retains complete late 17th- and early 18th-century fixtures and fittings throughout. The entrance hall features a moulded dado rail and a 4-part cross-beam ceiling with moulded cornice. The focal point is an elaborate fireplace (its stack truncated below the ridge) incorporating a large segmental arch with lugged architrave, splayed reveals lined with 19th-century decorative glazed tiles, a 19th-century grate, and a moulded dentil cornice breaking forward at the centre. Above this stands a painted plaster overmantel comprising pilasters with scrolled capitals, a central cornucopia, flanking scrolls, and a cornice with central triangular pediment. A pair of 18th-century wall cupboards with raised and fielded panels stands to the right of the fireplace. A late 17th-century staircase rises from the hall (not in its original position) with closed string barleysugar balusters, moulded handrail, and square newel post. A circa 1720 staircase rises to the attic at the left of the stack, arranged as a dog-leg with open string, pierced cut brackets, three turning balusters per tread, moulded handrail, and turned newels (paired on half-landings).

The right-hand ground-floor front room retains 17th-century moulded wainscot panelling and a 17th-century cross-beamed ceiling of four square compartments with moulded cornices and moulded circular panels within. An 18th-century fireplace features a lugged architrave with egg and dart enrichment, a pulvinated frieze with carved panel, and a moulded cornice; above it is an 18th-century oil painting of a rural scene in a lugged panel. An 18th-century corner cupboard to the left of the fireplace has shaped shelves and a segmental arch with imposts and key.

The right-hand ground-floor rear room contains a modern fireplace flanked by 18th-century cupboards, and an 18th-century corner cupboard with shaped shelves. The left-hand ground-floor front room (formerly the kitchen) has a large blocked fireplace.

Bedrooms throughout retain 18th-century fireplaces with lugged architraves and moulded cornices. The front room to the right has spayed reveals with Delft-type glazed tiles. The centre bedroom features a probably 19th-century false chest of drawers to allow headroom for an altered 17th-century staircase. An 18th-century fireplace formerly in the left-hand front bedroom was removed and stored in the attic at the time of survey in October 1985. Coved and moulded plaster cornices of the 17th and 18th centuries appear in many rooms. Doors throughout date to the 18th century; some are boarded with L-hinges, whilst most have 6 raised and fielded panels.

The building stands on the site of an earlier house. The asymmetrical hall and large stack arrangement of the central block suggest that part of the earlier plan may have survived in the current structure.