Yarner Farmhouse

Yarner Farmhouse is a multi-phase dwelling that evolved over several centuries from its origins as a probable early 16th-century open hall. The house was substantially remodelled and extended in the early to mid 17th century, extended again around the mid to late 17th century, and once more in the early 18th century, with further alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The building is constructed of roughcast rendered stone rubble, with local limestone rubble exposed at the rear and partly weatherboarded stud wall at the back. The roofs are slate, with asbestos slates at the rear, gable-ended over the east ends of the early 16th-century and 17th-century ranges, and hipped at the back and over the late 17th-century range. Rendered gable-end stacks feature rebuilt rendered shafts.

Development and Plan

The earliest part of the house forms the south range, orientated approximately west to east and facing south. This probable early 16th-century structure was originally open to the roof and appears to have extended further to the right (east), where the ground level is slightly lower, suggesting the demolished end was probably to the east.

The sequence of subsequent changes is unclear, but the right-hand truss has been infilled, creating a smoke-bay against the right-hand gable end. This predates the insertion of the floor and may be contemporary with the infilling of the left (west) of the three surviving trusses; the centre of the three trusses remains open. In the early to mid 17th century, a floor was inserted and a stack with a very large fireplace was built inside the smoke-bay, probably relegating the right-hand (east) end of this range to a kitchen with a chamber above. The left (west) end has been reduced in height with a lean-to roof but must also have originally been open to the roof.

Probably when the floor was inserted around the early to mid 17th century, a short parallel range was added behind the left-hand (west) end, extending to the left beyond the original range. It probably contained the parlour at the right end with a gable-end stack, and another room with a stack at the left end with a newel stair to the side of the stack. At this stage in the early to mid 17th century, the orientation of the house had probably changed.

In the mid to late 17th century, a one-room plan addition was built on the north behind the left-hand end of the parlour range, with a passage separating the two ranges. By this time, the east (right) side of the house had certainly become the front, presenting an elevation receding to the right and formed from the east ends of the staggered ranges projecting to the left.

A porch was built in 1714 in the angle of the north and middle ranges to the front of a passage which led to a lean-to outshut at the back (west) of the centre and north ranges. The outshut was later raised to two storeys, and another lean-to outshut was built at the right (north) side. In the 20th century, the passage north partition was removed from the mid to late 17th-century north range, the passage front doorway blocked, and a new doorway within the same 1714 porch inserted into the central early to mid 17th-century range, the east end of which became the stair hall.

Exterior

The house is of two storeys. As viewed from the east, it comprises three asymmetrical staggered ranges receding to the right. The gable end of the original early 16th-century range projects to the left with a projecting gable-end stack. On the inner right-hand face of the range is a probably 16th-century roughly chamfered heavy timber doorframe which has been raised and has a remade round head, now with the 20th-century glazed door; a circa late 19th- or early 20th-century three-light casement with glazing bars sits above.

Set back at the centre is the wide gable end of the early to mid 17th-century range, with a truncated gable-end stack and three late 19th- or early 20th-century two- and three-light casements with glazing bars. On the inner right-hand face, a circa late 17th- or early 18th-century (1714) two-storey porch occupies the angle, featuring a round-arch doorway made with small red bricks and a keystone inscribed with initials "E" over "I.E." and the date 1714. The plinth of the jambs are chamfered limestone. Inside the porch, the plaster ceiling has an ovolo and cavetto moulded cornice, and the heavy timber inner door frame is 17th-century with true mitres, double ovolo moulding, and much-worn urn-shaped stops. This doorway is now a window, or another doorway has been formed within the porch to the left. On the right side of the porch are a small window slit and a stone bench. To the right of the porch, a large late 19th- or early 20th-century three-light casement appears on both floors. On the right-hand return stands a later lean-to outbuilding.

At the rear west elevation, the hipped end of the roof of the original range to the right is carried down as a catslide. To the left, the whole building projects; the top of the gable end of the early to mid 17th-century middle range is set back, but below and in front, two small hipped roofs project over the rear service rooms, which are weatherboarded on the first floor, suggesting a heightening of a single-storey outshut. Flush with this to the left is a hipped roof over another rear service room. Various 20th-century wooden and metal-frame casements feature at the back, with 19th- to 20th-century examples on the south side.

Interior

The deep early to mid 17th-century middle range has two chamfered cross-beams with bar stops. At the west end of the middle range stands an early 18th-century china cupboard with thick moulded glazing bars to segmented-headed glazed doors and fielded panel lower doors; this cupboard was moved from another part of the house. On the north side of the west stack of the middle range, a curved recess probably contained a winder staircase.

The room below the original south range has a cross-beam under the left-hand truss, chamfered on the left side with step stops and unchamfered on the right-hand side, which has halvings for partition studs, the partition having been removed. There are two more cross-beams, both chamfered with deeply stepped stops; the ends of the beams are supported on large, probably 17th-century chamfered wooden corbels. The right-hand end has an inserted stack in the smoke-bay with a very large fireplace featuring a chamfered timber lintel with hollow step stops. This fireplace has been blocked with a smaller but still large, probably 18th-century fireplace with stone rubble jambs and a clay oven to the left. The left-hand bay of this range has a rolled steel joist in place of the original cross-beam and a later stud partition above.

Roofs

The early to mid 17th-century middle range has trusses with straight principals with morticed apexes and lapped dovetail joints to the collars, all pegged except for one of the dovetail joints, which has larger nails. The three tiers of purlins and diagonal ridge-piece are threaded. There are a few reused smoke-blackened rafters.

The roof over the mid to late 17th-century north range has been replaced with 20th-century softwood, except for one truss which is halved at the apex, with the collars lapped to the face of the principals and the purlins trenched.

The roof over the original south range is of three bays. The left west bay now has a hipped roof and is therefore probably mostly destroyed; it is ceiled and inaccessible. The other two bays are open on the first floor. The three trusses with slightly curved feet were open, with morticed collars (the collar of the centre truss replaced), morticed apexes, diagonal threaded or trenched ridge-piece, and two tiers of threaded purlins with pegs for rafters. All three trusses were probably originally open. The centre truss is still open. The left-hand truss is now closed with later (probably 17th-century) studs fixed with large nails and plastered panels. The right-hand truss is about one metre from the gable-end wall (which has part of another principal exposed) and has a cambered tie-beam and collar, with later studs fixed with large nails and plastered infill panels forming a smoke-bay. One of the purlins which continues over the smoke-bay is threaded and scarfed through the principal in the right-hand gable end, suggesting that the house continued to the right originally.