Cleave Farmhouse

Cleave Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating from a late 18th-century total remodelling of a 17th-century or earlier house, which has remained virtually unaltered since the late 18th century.

The house is constructed of local slate rubble with some quartz, with the upper section of the right-hand end wall plastered, suggesting the entire structure may once have been rendered. The roof is covered with scantle slate, hipped at the right end and gabled at the left end. A moulded wooden eaves cornice with plastered coving runs along the front, and early crested ridge tiles survive, notably including the tile over the hip which bears a rare ogee-shaped finial. The left gable end is a large stone rubble structure with a slate weathering and stack. A prominent projecting rear lateral chimney stack has an oven with a slate-weathered roof and a rendered shaft, while a second stack at the back has a brick shaft rising from the rear catslide roof.

The late 18th-century remodelling entirely changed the plan of the earlier house. The main range contains two principal rooms heated from rear lateral stacks, with a central entrance to the stairhall between them. The left-hand room, possibly the kitchen or hall of the original house, contains a large rear lateral stack which was altered to serve a back service room as well. The service room and the unheated room behind the right-hand room are contained within a two-storey outshut added in the late 18th century. At the lower end of the main range sits the kitchen, featuring a large gable-end fireplace with smoking chamber and stairs leading up to the servants' chamber above. To the left of the kitchen is a single-storey lean-to washhouse and small courtyard with a pentice roof, beneath which are a well and pump.

The exterior presents two storeys with a symmetrical three-bay south front and a one-window service wing to the left. The three-bay section displays the moulded and coved eaves cornice and late 18th-century two-light twelve-pane sashes in moulded exposed cases. Ground-floor windows have segmental brick arches with keystones, while the central first-floor window is a late 18th-century single-light sash with sixteen panes. Some front windows retain their original moulded wooden cills. The central doorway contains a six-panel door with the bottom two panels flush and fielded panels above. The porch canopy is supported on two replacement iron columns. The lower two-storey one-window service wing to the left features a 19th-century two-light casement with glazing bars on both floors.

The rear of the house is completely unaltered. To the left, the catslide roof over the two-storey outshut has a half-dormer and 19th-century casement windows. The projecting rear lateral stack sits in the angle between the outshut and main range, featuring a rounded oven with slate weathering. To its right is the service range with a small single-light window. A washhouse outshut occupies the left-hand (west) lower end, adjoining a small courtyard enclosed by a wall with a pentice roof, under which are a well and pump with a granite trough. A 20th-century glazed conservatory has been added at the rear.

The interior retains late 18th-century character throughout. An open well staircase at the left-hand side of the stairhall has a chinoiserie lattice balustrade, square newel and moulded string. Original fielded six-panel doors throughout are set in moulded architraves. The left-hand room on the ground floor features a late 18th-century moulded wooden chimneypiece with heavy moulded cornice and mantelpiece, together with a late 19th-century oven. Panelled window shutters are found throughout the house. The right-hand ground-floor room has a late 18th-century wooden chimneypiece with dentilled moulded cornice, pilasters and a frieze decorated with garlands of wheat husks.

The first floor contains fielded two-panel doors. The left-hand first-floor room has a late 18th-century chimneypiece with eared architrave and moulded shelf, and a late 18th-century hanging cupboard with panelled double doors and a drawer below. The right-hand room features a similar late 18th-century chimneypiece with eared architrave and moulded mantelshelf.

The rear service rooms are separated in part by a plank and muntin partition, probably reused from the earlier house. The right-hand back room is unheated. The left-hand back room has a wide fireplace with a chamfered wooden lintel with one straight cut stop and stone rubble jambs; this fireplace adjoins the front room fireplace which originally served the kitchen in the main range. Both rear service rooms have chamfered cross beams, the central one featuring a hollow step stop.

The lower end servants' wing contains a ground-floor kitchen with a very large fireplace featuring a chamfered lintel with run-out stops and a smoking chamber to the left. The ceiling joists are closely spaced, with one being a reused principal rafter bearing mortices for threaded purlins. The late 18th-century staircase up to the servants' chamber above has stick balusters and square newels. A first-floor cupboard is fitted with a two-panel door. The late 18th-century roofs feature halved collars nailed and pegged to the faces of the principals.

This is a remarkably complete farmhouse with virtually no alterations since the late 18th century.