Stevens Farm, 2 Stevens Farm and Stevens Cottage

Stevens Farm, 2 Stevens Farm and Stevens Cottage

Farmhouse of mid-19th-century date, subdivided in the mid- to late-20th century, with attached cottage dated 1837, converted from a pair of dwellings in 1978.

The buildings are constructed of squared, snecked limestone with ashlar dressings to the front elevation, and roughly coursed rubble to the sides and rear. Windows have brick dressings to the side and rear elevations. The roofs are slate with red brick chimneystacks.

The buildings have an L-shaped footprint with one range running roughly east-west in line with the road and an intersecting range to the south-west. No. 2 Stevens Farm, formerly a pair of cottages, stands adjacent to the north.

Stevens Farm House and Stevens Cottage occupy the same two-storey building with hipped roofs and boxed eaves. The principal south-facing elevation has a projecting wing on the west with two windows to each floor. The main front door is recessed in the angle between the two sections, with a stair window above. The range to the east contains two further window bays with a central doorway serving Stevens Cottage. Window openings have ashlar jambs and flat keyed lintels with stone sills. Stevens Farm House has two-light timber casements with glazing bars, whilst Stevens Cottage retains 20th-century casements in original openings with depressed arch heads. Stevens Farm House has a flush and recess panel door with two top lights; Stevens Cottage has a 20th-century panel and glazed door. Ashlar quoins ornament the principal elevation.

The west return elevation features wide window openings with segmental arched heads and stone voussoirs, and a plank door with over-light. Later openings have concrete lintels. The rear of Stevens Cottage has irregular openings with brick arches, including a window formed from a blocked doorway. A rear extension, now part of Stevens Cottage but apparently originally serving No. 2 Stevens Farm, was in place by 1889. The rear of Stevens Farm House has one first-floor opening with full brick architrave and an inserted ground-floor opening.

No. 2 Stevens Farm abuts the rear (north) of Stevens Farm House. Built as two cottages in 1837, replacing earlier buildings on the same footprint, each cottage originally had a wide segmental-arched, brick-lined window and a doorway on the ground floor with a window above. A central datestone with brick surround inscribed 'C H / 1837' marked the division between them. When converted to a single dwelling in the 1970s, as part of works including the construction of garages and Stevens Farm Lodge, the doorway to the northern cottage was enveloped behind a porch. The west elevation, now principal, was formerly the rear and opened onto a small walled garden. The east elevation faces a yard.

A lean-to now part of Stevens Cottage envelops the ground floor of the southern side; the northern side has a doorway, a window formed from a blocked doorway, and a small window, all within arched brick openings. Two wide windows and one very small window light the first floor. The northern gable displays scars in the masonry from earlier buildings. The roof is hipped to align with the main range of the farmhouse, with a gable to the northern end. The central brick stack was rebuilt in 1978.

Interior of Stevens Farm House: an entrance hall leads to the lounge and kitchen. The lounge has panelled window openings with shutters. The kitchen features a wide chimneybreast with chamfered stone bressummer, partially under-built in brick. The stair has turned newels, moulded handrail and stick balusters. On the first floor, a stone chimneypiece survives in one bedroom. Panelled doors occur throughout.

Stevens Cottage has two principal ground-floor rooms sharing a chimneystack. The eastern room has a large inglenook, now blocked. A blocked doorway connects to the farmhouse in the western room and on the first floor. Six-panel doors with moulded architraves serve the ground floor. The first floor has a reconfigured plan with a thick transverse wall containing a chimneybreast.

No. 2 Stevens Farm, formed from a pair of cottages, has two principal ground-floor rooms with a small kitchen to the north-east. The central chimneystack, with large fireplace openings on either side, was rebuilt in brick in the 1970s; the deep bressumers, ceiling beam and stair date from the same phase. First-floor rooms have splayed window openings. The roof contains pegged king-post trusses, trenched purlins and a narrow ridge piece; some rafters are replacements.