Great Hollanden House

Great Hollanden Farmhouse

Farmhouse dating to approximately the mid-16th century or earlier, with a probable 17th-century remodelling at the north end and a late 19th-century addition. The main range is framed construction, underbuilt in Flemish bond brick with the first floor tile-hung; it has a peg-tile roof and ragstone rubble and brick chimney stacks. The 19th-century addition is brick with a peg-tile roof and brick stacks.

The house is oriented west-facing with an overall L-shaped plan. The main range is two rooms wide with a crosswing at the north end, which was extended to the rear (east) during the late 19th century. The five-bay main range represents the higher end and cross passage entrance of a mid-16th-century house. The higher end may be of single phase, though the combination of a crown post roof with a close-studded crosswall is rather unusual. Both the hall and the jettied inner end (to the south) are heated from massive projecting lateral stacks, and there is a large high-status heated chamber over the hall. The crosswing, which has few dateable details, is probably a 17th-century rebuilding of the mid-16th-century lower end, though much altered later. In the late 19th century, the crosswing was extended, a series of two-storey rear lean-tos were added to the main range, and a stair was introduced into the passage.

The exterior is two storeys with an asymmetrical window arrangement on the west front: the gable end of the crosswing to the left and the roof of the main range gabled at the right end. A 19th-century gabled porch at the entrance, alongside the crosswing, features a segmental arched outer doorway and a half-glazed two-leaf inner door dating to approximately the early 20th century. To the right is a 19th- or early 20th-century single-storey projecting bay with a two-light casement. The windows are predominantly two-, three- and four-light 19th-century casements with glazing bars, some paired. The right (south) end is jettied with a large late 20th-century window replacing a 17th-century bay window. The projecting lateral stacks on the rear elevation are now enclosed by the 19th-century additions; they have tall, tapering handmade brick shafts with ragstone rubble chimney breasts, and the rear right stack has a rebuilt shaft. The left (north) return has a probably 19th-century stack heating the crosswing and two ground floor and one first floor three-light casements. The 19th-century extension has six windows on the north side; the ground floor windows have segmental arched heads and all preserve their 19th-century glazing of two panes per light.

The interior mid-16th-century hall contains a richly-moulded longitudinal beam with canted step stops, a neatly-carpentered close-studded partition at the higher end, and a large open fireplace with moulded stone jambs, the lintel concealed by late 19th- or early 20th-century timbers. The right-hand room has a similar moulded and stopped crossbeam and matching intersecting beam on the north side only. The crosswing is plain with no early visible features. The chamber over the hall has an intersecting beam ceiling with chamfered stopped beams and a good 16th-century moulded stone chimney-piece with a Tudor arched lintel. Some wall framing with large tension braces is visible on the first floor.

The roof comprises five bays of crown post construction, with one of the posts removed. The carpentry is of late character for the roof type, with plain posts braced two ways to the collar purlin and probably only once to the tie-beams, though some braces may have been removed. The timber is of comparatively slender scantling, the braces flat and broad, and the bays closely spaced. The tie-beams are supported on jowled wallposts.

A ledger stone, presently concealed below the altar of Leigh church, commemorates John Stace of Hollenden, who died in 1591. The owners have a full list of 16th- and 17th-century owners and photographs of the house in the late 19th century. This is a high-status traditional house with interesting carpentry.