Old Abbey Farmhouse

Farmhouse. The core of the building is likely medieval, with substantial alterations and rebuilding in the late 16th or early 17th century. It stands on the edge of the former Cistercian abbey complex at Stanley, founded in 1154; the abbey was granted to Sir Edward Baynton at the Dissolution. The construction is of limestone rubble, with stone slate and Bridgewater tile roofs. There is a brick ridge stack, an ashlar stack at the right (south) end, and a collapsed brick stack at the north end. It has a plan of six bays, with the two bays to the right showing signs of smoke blackening to the roof and two blocked entries in the right gable end, possibly to former service areas. The building was being restored at the time of a survey in December 1992.

The south range, with three windows, has timber lintels over a late 19th-century panelled door with a bracketed hood, a plank door to the left, and over the window openings. The first floor has a blocked three-light wooden mullioned window. The rear elevation features two single-light, chamfered windows, one of which illuminates the stairwell behind the stack.

The interior contains a late medieval, six-bay collar-truss roof with truncated tie beams, two tiers of through purlins, and some original wind bracing. The ground-floor room to the right has a chamfered bressumer over the open fireplace; the waney-edged beam is later, suggesting this room may have originally been open to the roof, accounting for the smoke blackening. The central ground-floor room has a mutilated chamfered bressumer over its open fireplace and stop-chamfered beams with original joists. A timber-framed wall, partially rebuilt in 19th-century brick, divides this room from the one to the left, which also has a chamfered beam with early-style joisting. It is said that the building has thick walls and a wind-braced roof, although this requires further investigation. The farmhouse adjoins the site of Stanley Abbey.