Lyde Green Farmhouse

Lyde Green Farmhouse is a large stone farmhouse dating from the mid to late 17th century, possibly with earlier origins. It stands as an unusually unaltered example of its type, retaining many early features throughout.

The building is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with stone dressings, beneath a clay pantile gabled roof. The rendered axial stacks are set with diagonally-laid red brick shafts.

The house follows a 3-room and through-passage plan. The left room is heated from an axial stack backing onto the through-passage, with a small unheated room at the rear in a short wing. The right-hand room is heated from an axial stack between it and a smaller unheated room at the right end. A later single-storey porch has been added to the front, and a 2-storey porch with an integral stair turret stands at the back of the passage.

The exterior presents 2 storeys and an attic. The 3-bay west front is dominated by two large gables, each containing ovolo-moulded 3-light stone mullion window frames with hood moulds, iron casements, and large relieving arches above. Smaller single-light moulded stone attic window frames sit in the gables, also with hood moulds. A small stone gabled porch at the centre features a moulded timber inner door frame, its left jamb now missing. The bay to the right appears to have been extended forwards and contains a small square wooden window frame. The south and north gable-ends also carry stone mullion windows; the south end has two later raking buttresses. The rear elevation displays two large gables and a shallow gabled wing to the right, with a gabled 2-storey porch at the centre containing a moulded timber inner door frame with carved stops and a plank door. A complete set of moulded stone mullion windows with hood moulds and relieving arches runs across the rear elevation.

The interior is largely unaltered and retains substantial 17th-century features. The front door has a draw-bar. The through-passage contains a chamfered beam to the left on corbels over a wall with a chamfered timber doorframe with cambered head. The right-hand room has a later axial partition and a chamfered axial beam with cyma stops; its fireplace is blocked by a 20th-century chimneypiece. A chamfered doorframe leads from the passage into the room to the right, which features a deeply chamfered cross-beam with large convex stops and a chamfered half-beam over the stack with a large bar stop. This fireplace is also blocked by a 20th-century chimneypiece. The unheated room on the right is ceiled and has a later fireplace inserted into the back of the axial stack. A plank and panel door provides access to the stairs.

The 17th-century dog-leg stairs are of fine quality, with a moulded string featuring a rusticated frieze, heavy moulded handrail, and large square newels. Only one finial remains and the splat balusters are missing. An axial passage on the first floor connects chambers with cyma-moulded door frames featuring elaborate stops. The great chamber has intersecting chamfered ceiling beams with pyramid-like stops. The north chamber contains a simple 18th-century chimneypiece. A moulded doorframe leads to the attic stairs, which retains its plank and panel door.

The 17th-century roof structure survives intact, cross-gabled with chamfered tie-beams, one of which has shaped braces at either end, and chamfered collars with cyma stops. The common-rafter couples remain intact throughout. The roof of the rear wing incorporates what appear to be re-used smoke-blackened purlins and rafters.