Blacklands Farmhouse Including Adjoining Barn And Engine-House

SS 71 NE 4/35

MESHAW Blacklands Farmhouse including adjoining barn and engine-house

II

Farmhouse with an attached barn at right-angles to right side, engine-house at the rear. Probably all late C17, some minor C19 and C20 alteration. Rubble stone and cob, upper floor of the house roughcast, wheat straw-thatched roof with hipped ends, 2 large lateral stacks at the rear with tall shafts, one of rubble and one of brick, barn with a hipped corrugated iron-sheeting roof, engine-house with a segmental corrugated-iron-sheeting roof. Plan: The right-hand 2 rooms belong to the original 2-room plan house which has a central lobby entrance in front of a straight staircase rising from the lobby between the 2 rooms; the hall/kitchen to the left is about the same size as the parlour to the right, and both are heated from lateral stacks at the back. The small room (now the kitchen) to the left of the hall/kitchen was probably a dairy added in the C18. In the C20 a further room was added at the left end. Across the right-hand end there is a large C18 threshing barn forming an overall T-plan with a horse-engine house in the angle at the rear. Exterior: farmhouse of 2 storeys, symmetrical 2:2 bays, 2-light C19 casements with small panes on the first floor, a similar casement to the left side of the ground floor and 2-light late C19 casements, weathered stone string at first floor level. Central door opening, late C17 four-panelled door, non-conforming C20 porch. Interior: there are no exposed ceiling beams, which were probably always ceiled. The parlour fireplace is blocked, but the hall/kitchen fireplace has an unchamfered timber lintol and an oven. The straight-flight stair has late C17 turned balusters at the top, the right-hand balustrade replaced in facsimile. Over the landing at the top of the stairs there is a late C17 moulded plaster ceiling with an oval and cornice. Roof: the roofspace was not inspected but the fact the straight principals are exposed in the first floor rooms indicate it may be original roof. Barn and engine house: barn with opposed threshing doors. Roof of round horse- engine house supported on simple wooden columns. Barn with late C17 tie-beam roof.

Listing NGR: SS7758019234