Woodend Farm

Woodend Farm is a farmstead of 1858 date, designed by J&J Girdwood of London for Edmund Probyn.

The buildings are constructed of red brick laid in English bond, with stone plinths to the two external facades. Low limestone walls extend to the yard and farmhouse garden, with a plinth extending to a modern shed in the north-east corner. The principal farm buildings have cogged eaves and verges, with short returns at the foot of the gables. Windows have stone cills, and most openings feature segmental heads with brick-on-end voussoirs and chamfered arrises. The roofs are covered in slate.

The farmstead is planned as a large E-shape, single-storey except for part of the barn range. A single-storey building, possibly a cartshed, spans across the west entrance to the yard.

The main eastern approach has a yard entrance with a cartshed gable to the left and a single-storey stable block to the right, extending north to a higher gable of the attached hay barn. The stable flank has a central door positioned above the rubble stone plinth with small ventilation openings to the right. The barn gable end has a door opening to two floors, one above the other, the upper with a stone cill. A carved stone datestone in the gable reads EP 1858. Five tie-ends are bolted to the elevation.

The north elevation features sliding double-doors to the barn on the left, followed by two narrow flat-headed windows, further doors and a window. Above the right bays is a mid-height shuttered door, with two dormers above having flat-head openings and stone cills. The far-right bay, containing another window and double doors with stone hinge blocks, is enclosed within an attached modern Dutch barn.

The east yard has stable openings to the east wing, one sealed, and a central set of double doors. The south elevation of the barn has similar fenestration to its north elevation. The hay barn in the north-east corner has had its threshing floor removed. The adjoining two-storey section contains a feed preparation area and granary with a timber stair. In the east wing stables, originally a trap-house, two brick troughs survive, one relatively altered.

The eight-bay central wing was originally a wide double cow house, now with altered openings to both yards. The north-end bay was used for feed preparation and features a chimney, roof light and prominent octagonal louvered ventilator with iron weather vane. The south end of the central wing extends into the west yard with altered openings.

The west yard contains single-storey stables to the north, lit only by roof lights. Two elliptical-headed openings stand in the corner, adjoined by four semi-circular headed openings. The openings were originally partly closed by the floor of the wall with a low door; one remains unaltered.

The roof trusses are generally of timber king-post construction, although the central wing features iron trusses—an early example in farm buildings.

In the south-east corner facing the east yard, the former cart shed has wide cambered openings to left and right. The central arch has been widened and strengthened with concrete blockwork, reducing its interest compared to the E-plan buildings. Small openings have been inserted in the south wall, and the roof is of king-post construction.

The adjacent farmhouse, while partly of 17th-century origin, is not of special architectural or historic interest, although its red brick elevations and its character as a 19th-century farmhouse complement the listed farmstead. Other buildings on the site are of 20th or 21st-century date and are not of special architectural or historic interest.