Durneford Court

Durneford Court is a house dating from around the early to mid 17th century, with renovations in the 20th century. It is constructed of whitewashed rendered stone with a slate roof, gabled at the ends, and has brick chimney shafts at the rear and right end.

The original plan likely comprised the hall and lower end of a three-room single-depth house, with the inner room now forming a cottage adjoining to the left (Berry Cottage). The hall, on the left, is heated by a rear lateral stack, while the room to the right appears to have functioned as a parlour. There is a suggestion of a former passage to the right of the centre. The house has two front doors, the right-hand one potentially representing the original entrance, and an additional doorway on the left leading into the 17th-century hall. Former outbuildings at the rear have been incorporated, and the hall fireplace was adapted when the house was used as a bakery, with large ovens installed.

The exterior is asymmetrical with four window bays. It features a late 19th-century shop window on the right, and front doors with porch canopies supported on moulded timber brackets, positioned to the left and right of centre. The ground floor has 20th-century sash windows, and the first floor has 20th-century two-light casements.

Inside, the hall fireplace has ovolo-moulded volcanic stone jambs and a lintel, which is partly truncated. The first floor is supported by one 17th-century ovolo-moulded scroll-stopped cross beam and two half beams. The half beam next to the party wall with Berry Cottage shows grooves indicating an early partition. The right-hand room has one worn cross beam and one replaced cross beam, and its fireplace features ovolo-moulded volcanic stone jambs and a replaced lintel.

The roof contains two 17th-century side-pegged jointed cruck trusses with a diagonally-set ridge. The left-hand truss (above the partition with Berry Cottage) is closed. A third truss, over the right-hand room, is a re-used jointed cruck truss awkwardly resting against a chamfered timber window frame of a tall, narrow slit window. While there is some sooting on the truss, it is not sufficient to suggest a medieval origin. The building has group value with other buildings in The Bury.