Wiermarsh Farmhouse

Farmhouse. It likely dates to the 16th or 17th century, with substantial remodelling, appearing largely rebuilt, probably in the mid-19th century, and an enlargement in 1879 (as indicated by a datestone). The construction uses snecked squared and coursed stone, covered by a roof of scantle-slates. There are stone chimney stacks, one lateral with a 19th-century red-brick shaft, and two further red-brick stacks, one axial and one at an end. The large axial stack to one wing has chamfered corners and a toothed cornice to its oversailing cap. The original plan probably involved three rooms and a cross or through-passage, featuring a hall with an external lateral stack to the rear and a possible former passage to the right of the hall, which may have a later 19th-century staircase inserted. A further room was likely a former service room, with an integral end stack, and another a former inner room on the left-hand end. A 19th-century outshut runs along the rear. The ground slopes to the right. Alternatively, the plan might be interpreted as a 17th-century two-room central-entrance plan, with the room at the left-hand end being part of the 1879 wing. A large gabled wing, dated 1879, projects to the front on the left-hand side, organised around a two-room plan with an axial stack. The building has two storeys, with a one-storey outshut. The older part of the house has a symmetrical front with three windows on the first floor and two on the ground floor. The windows are 19th-century three-light casements with small panes, wooden lintels, and slate sills. There is also a small one-light first-floor wooden casement to the left. The centrally located doorway has a 19th-century boarded door, a beaded wooden frame, and a wooden lintel. A late 19th-century slate-roofed porch, supported on stone corbels with a boarded soffit and chamfered scrolled bargeboards to the verges, shelters the entrance. The rear lateral stack has chamfered offsets to the sides and to the brick shafts. A gabled projection above the staircase to the rear has a 19th-century four-pane sash window. The gable end of the left-hand front wing has 19th-century three-light casements with small panes on both the ground and first floors, featuring dressed stone segmental-arched heads and slate sills. A raised, chamfered datestone in the gable reads "M.R. 1879”. The return front on the right-hand side of the wing has two three-light casements with small panes on each floor, along with wooden lintels and slate cills. The interior was remodelled in the mid- to late-19th century. Inspection during a survey in December 1987 found that only part of the ground floor was accessible. A hall, which is the ground-floor room to the left of the entrance, features an open stone fireplace to the rear with a wooden lintel and a 19th-century cast iron door to a bread oven. A late 18th-century wooden corner cupboard sits in the left-hand rear corner, with an open front and a dentil cornice, and incorporates a window seat. The room also has 19th-century four-panelled doors.