Leadingcross Green Farmhouse

Leadingcross Green Farmhouse, Sandway

House, formerly farmhouse. Probably of 17th-century origin, refronted in the early 19th century. Late 20th-century north and west additions are not of special interest.

Materials and Structure

The building is constructed of red brick in flemish bond with some tile-hanging, tiled roof, and brick chimneystacks. It is an end chimneystack house, refronted in the early 19th century with an outshot added at that time.

Exterior

The front elevation (south-facing) is two storeys with three windows. Red brick in flemish bond features grey headers to the first floor and a band of grey headers separating the floors. The gabled tiled roof has external end brick chimneystacks and a dentilled brick eaves cornice. Two twelve-pane sashes light the upper floor; the ground floor has a blank central window with rubbed brick voussoirs flanking the windows. A central six-panelled door with the top two panels glazed sits beneath a flat bracketed wooden hood.

The east side displays an external brick chimneystack with tumbling-in and a small casement window in the partly tile-hung gable. A further section has a tiled first floor, 20th-century casement, and a brick ground floor with a mixture of early 19th-century diaper brickwork to the left and 20th-century brickwork to the right. Three 20th-century ground-floor casements are present. The west side has an external brick chimneystack with diaper brickwork to the front of the gable and tile-hanging to the rear, now largely concealed by a late 20th-century single-storey brick extension with three casement windows and patio doors. The rear elevation features three late 20th-century tile-hung gables to the first floor and a wider west gable at ground floor with 20th-century casements and doors.

A one-storey late 20th-century brick extension is attached to the west with a twelve-pane sash, not of special interest.

Interior

The south door opens into a full-width living room. The west end has a wide open fireplace with wooden bressumer and brick piers, the latter of 20th-century construction. The ceiling displays two exposed axial beams and floor joists. The axial beams and eight floor joists are of 17th-century date. The north wall is of late 18th-century date with thin-scantling timbers and 20th-century brick infill. A wide doorcase in this wall leads down two worn steps into the dining room, which has a west wall of thin-scantling timbers with plastered infill and a wooden ceiling with two axial beams, one fitted with iron hooks.

The first-floor landing has a northern wall of framing of thin scantling with diagonal braces and an exposed ceiling with two axial beams, originally covered with lath and plaster. The north-east bedroom has a wide ledged plank door and exposed roof structure with ridge piece and collar beams. The south-east bedroom shows the wallplate and a late 18th-century or early 19th-century partition wall. The floor levels between ground and first floors are thought to have been raised in the 1980s.

Historical Development

A farmhouse of probable 17th-century origins, the building was refronted in the early 19th century. It is shown on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1894 with a rectangular shape and projections (chimneystacks) to west and east. Various extensions were added in the late 20th century.