Noverton Farmhouse

Noverton Farmhouse

Large detached house of the 16th and 19th centuries, located on the south side of Noverton Lane in Prestbury. The building is constructed of limestone rubble with dressed stone quoins, though much of the rear wall is now faced in unpainted incised render. The forward-facing roof pitch is covered in stone slate, with artificial stone slate at the rear. A 19th-century extension at the right angles to the rear right uses coursed squared and dressed limestone with an artificial stone slate roof. Additional lean-to structures flank the left and right sides: the left lean-to is coursed squared and dressed limestone and brick with a slate roof, while the right lean-to has a stone slate roof. Brick stacks are present, one standing on an ashlar stump.

The house follows a long rectangular plan with a cross gable positioned off-centre to the right and a through passage. A diagonal buttress at the corner of the cross gable suggests that the bay to the right of the cross gable may have been added shortly after the main phase of construction. The main body rises to two storeys with the cross gable positioned off-centre to the right. The front elevation comprises five bays with windows of 2, 3 and 4 lights, featuring double-chamfered stone mullions, 4-centred arched heads, carved spandrels and stopped hoods. A blocked 2-light window with hood is visible on the ground floor at the far left. Above this, a two-light window with horizontal glazing bars serves the first floor. Cast-iron security bars protect both ground and first floor windows, with the far right-hand first floor window displaying hollow chamfers. A 19th-century porch with flat coping and finial to the cross gable conceals an early studded plank door that retains part of an early thumb latch. The door sits within the original hollow-chamfered Tudor-arched surround. A second early plank door within a segmental-headed flat-chamfered surround with moulded stops opens into the through passage. A small flat-chamfered rectangular window to the right of this doorway is now blocked. Blocked doorways above the porch and in the same position in the south-facing gable suggest the former presence of exterior access to these doorways.

The rear fenestration mirrors that of the entrance front, including a 2-light hollow-chamfered stone-mullioned casement. One 20th-century three-light casement is situated towards the east gable end, with a change in wall line to its left suggesting rebuilding of part of this wall during the 19th century. The east gable end is lit by four 2-light stone-mullioned casements with 4-centred arched heads, of which two are now blocked and one mutilated; the unmutilated mullions display hollow chamfers. The west gable end contains a single-light window (restored) on the ground floor, and 2-light stone-mullioned casements to both the first floor and attic. A stopped hood rises above the first floor window, and flat coping finishes the gable ends. An off-the-ridge stack stands to the left of the cross gable.

Interior features include flagged floors and squared-panelled timber-framed partition walls. Tie beams with deep flat chamfers and small intersecting beams run throughout the main body. A small blocked rectangular window with a flat-chamfered stone surround survives in the former west gable end of the main body. A mutilated stone Tudor-arched fireplace, at one time plastered, bears a small keystone. The roof over the room with cross gables contains tie beams whose soffits are painted red. Mortice holes in these beams and wall plaster rising to the height of the beams indicate that the first floor room once had a higher ceiling. Towards the east end of the main body sits a single arch-braced collar beam truss, possibly representing a roof truss from an open hall or an upstairs room open to the roof. The small room to the right of the main entrance, now a bathroom, is reputed to have once been a chapel containing an aumbry (now covered up) and an altar.

The house was probably built by the Baghot family in the early 16th century. In the 1540s William Baghot is recorded as possessing a "fair house" at Noverton called Hall Place. By 1569 William Baghot's manor of Hall Place was described as lately belonging to Llanthony Priory. The building was subsequently known as Upper Noverton Farm.