Great Wasketh Farmhouse

Great Wasketh Farmhouse is a property with origins dating back to the 15th century, with a rear wing from that period, and incorporates a mid- to late 17th-century wing to the right. The front block was constructed around 1840. The front is built of brick with a stucco facing, and has a hipped roof covered with Westdales slate. The rear ranges are timber-framed and render, with gabled concrete tile roofs, and brick stacks.

The front block is arranged with a central staircase plan, and a parallel range to the rear left, which has 15th-century origins, with a mid- to late 17th-century cross wing added to the right. The front elevation, dating to around 1840, is two storeys and has a symmetrical three-window arrangement. It features a 20th-century glazed door with an overlight, set into panelled reveals with pilasters and bracketed architrave. The mid-19th century has horned six-pane sashes in moulded wood architraves, and a continuous verandah with fluted cast-iron columns that have foliate capitals and bases, and deep eaves.

The rear range includes a cross wing to the right with an early 19th-century sixteen-pane sash above a mid-19th-century horned twelve-pane sash, and an early 19th-century twenty-four-pane sash to the rear. A mid-19th-century outshut adjoins the range to the left. The rear wall of the left-hand wing has early 20th-century casements and an early 19th-century four-light casement with leaded lights to the first floor.

Inside the front range, there are panelled doors, a dog-leg staircase with winders, stick balusters, turned newels, and a cast-iron fireplace on the first floor to the right. The rear left range contains a large 17th-century beam against the left-end wall, a chamfered transverse beam, chamfered joists and close studding to a partition wall. C19 partitions have been erected, one with a leaded light to what was formerly a buttery or pantry. The first floor has a chamfered tie beam to the left, two chamfered beams in the centre, a late 17th-century panelled door with H-hinges, and a timber-framed transverse partition to the right, against the cross wing. The cross wing to the right has chamfered beams to both floors. A 19th-century square-headed fireplace is set in a moulded wood architrave on the ground floor, and there are 19th-century cupboard doors on the first floor. The former “open hall” in the rear left wing had an interrupted tie beam end wall and was raised to two storeys in the 17th century.

A subsidiary brewhouse, dating to the early 19th century, is located to the rear. This is timber-framed and render with a gambrel concrete tile roof and one storey, containing a 19th-century plank door in a beaded frame and a 20th-century casement. A canted roof dormer with a 20th-century casement is also present. Internally, the brewhouse has a large brick fireplace with a wood bressummer over the open fireplace, flanked by coppers. One half of the interior is open and has a chamfered beam to a former apple loft at one end.