Rigg Lane Farmhouse

Detached farmhouse, originally dating to the second half of the 15th or early 16th century, with alterations in the early 17th century, and further modifications in the 19th century and 20th century. The building is constructed of stone walls, which have been rendered and washed, and has a thatched roof. It was originally an open-hall house with a through-passage plan. The roof is gabled, with 20th-century brick stacks at the left-hand gable, slightly left of centre along the ridge, and at the right-hand gable. The farmhouse has one-and-a-half storeys and now features three windows with two-light wood casements, containing horizontal glazing-bars, wooden sills, and lintels – these are of 19th and 20th-century date. Three gabled half-dormers with thatched roofs are situated above the windows, also dating to the 19th century. The front door, positioned slightly left of centre, is a plank-and-muntin door set within a wooden frame, and is sheltered by a 20th-century porch supported by wooden columns and topped with a gabled thatched canopy.

On the rear elevation, a central three-light ground-floor window is of 17th-century origin, featuring a timber lintel, a wooden frame with moulded jambs and chamfered mullions (moulded on the inside), lead cames fixed to wooden stanchions, and old glass.

The interior retains significant historical features. A blocked former doorway, now a window, opposite the existing front door suggests the original location of a through-passage. The most important internal feature is the late-medieval roof structure, supported by base crucks, incorporating four principal rafter trusses with cambered collars, large-section diagonally-set ridge pieces, a wall plate, and two sets of chamfered, scarf-jointed trenched purlins. There are also two tiers of chamfered curved wind braces, with much of the original timber surviving. Smoke blackening is visible throughout the roof space. Near the inserted stack, traces of an original partition wall are present below the collar, which would have formed one side of the through-passage, and the left-hand gable is constructed of wattle and daub. Dating to the 17th century are the central stack with its ground-floor fireplace, which has a deep timber lintel with a chamfered, triangular-arched soffit; the compartmented ceiling in the central room with deeply chamfered beams; and the flooring over the two right-hand rooms, which has been altered.