Tigley Farmhouse

Tigley Farmhouse is a farmhouse built in the early to mid 16th century, remodelled in the 17th century, extended in the 18th and possibly 19th centuries, and altered again in the 20th century. It is constructed of local limestone rubble with scantle slate-hanging on the higher right-hand gable end, and has a steeply pitched slate roof with gable ends and rendered gable end and front lateral stacks.

The house follows a 3-room and through passage plan with a large unheated lower end room to the left. The hall has a front lateral stack with an oven, and the relatively large inner room to the right with a chamber above are both heated from a gable end stack. There is a large single storey porch to the front of the passage doorway and an adjoining outshut on the front of the lower left end, with a loft above accessed from within the porch. At the rear of the hall is a 2-storey wing with a gable end stack. An ash house is attached to the lower rear corner, which once had access from inside the house. The building is constructed on a slope, with ground much lower at the left-hand service end.

Originally the house was open to the roof probably from end to end and divided by low partitions, of which only the hall and inner room screen survives. Of the original roof, only the truss over the lower left end and over the passage remain; they are all open trusses blackened by smoke from an open hearth fire, except for the truss over the passage which is relatively clean. This suggests that the hall stack was inserted soon after the house was built while the hall and lower end were still open to the roof, evidenced by the very high lintel of the hall fireplace. The floors were probably inserted in phases, first in the higher end. The lower end was likely originally a shippon of a longhouse with a loft above, as suggested by its considerable length, ventilation slit in the front wall, crude beams, and absence of an early partition on the lower side of the passage. The lower end had been converted to domestic use by the 18th century, evidenced by a dairy outshut on the front and direct access to an attached ash house at the back. The 17th century porch at the front of the through passage is earlier than the adjoining circa 18th century dairy outshut. The 2-storey wing behind the hall may be an 18th or early 19th century addition, probably added when the higher end of the house was reroofed. In the 20th century an outshut was added to the back of the lower end overlapping the hall.

The west front is 2 storeys, with the higher end to the right having two 20th century first floor casements with glazing bars in small openings and a similar inner room window on the ground floor to the right. A large 19th century 3-light casement with glazing bars lights the hall to the left, all with timber lintels. There is some disturbed masonry around the hall window. The truncated lateral hall stack has a porch to its left with a side wall of massive masonry with a chamfered plinth. The porch was probably originally open-fronted; its left side wall was demolished and the park incorporated into the adjoining lean-to dairy to the left which has a round corner, 19th century rendered shaft to a later stack and a 20th century 3-light casement.

The rear elevation shows the lower end with one early 19th century 3-light casement with leaded panes and a 20th century 2-light casement on the first floor. On the ground floor is an ash house with steps up to the loading door and clearing hatch below; its lean-to roof continues to the left over a small 20th century outshut. To the left of centre the 2-storey wing has 19th century 3-light casements on its inner side and a 19th century 3-light casement with a hoodmould on its outer side; its gable end has a slightly projecting stack with a red brick shaft. To the left of the main range are 19th century 3-light casements with hollow-chamfered frames and glazing bars. The higher south end wall is slate hung in the gable with outshuts below. The lower north gable end appears to have been rebuilt; it has a 19th century cambered arch casement window on the ground storey and a 20th century window above.

Internally, the lower end room has roughly hewn cross-beams. The inner room ceiling beam is concealed and the hall has a chamfered cross-beam with bar stops. The hall and inner room plank and muntin screen has high diagonal stops. The passage and hall screen head beam survives supported on stone corbels. The hall has a front lateral fireplace with a high timber lintel with run-out stops and a clay oven. The inner room fireplace lintel is covered. The rear wing has a large open fireplace with a brick arch. The passage and porch have an attractive local limestone floor. The chamber over the inner room has a later 17th century moulded plaster cornice and a later 17th century plaster overmantel over the fireplace in the gable end, which is a fielded panel in a moulded frame with a painted verse.

The roof over the lower end and passage comprises five smoke-blackened open trusses; the straight principals have mortices for threaded purlins and ridge-piece, which are missing, and mortices for collars which are also missing. The 18th century roof over the higher end has principals with lapped apexes. The roof over the rear wing is 20th century.