Home Farm Cottage And Adjoining Courtyard And Retaining Walls

Home Farm Cottage and Adjoining Courtyard and Retaining Walls

A farmhouse, now residential, dated 1829 on a quoin to the rear of the left-hand wing, probably designed by the Reverend W. S. Halliday. An addition in the Tudor Gothic style was made in 1853. The building is constructed of uncoursed sandstone rubble with ashlar and red brick dressings, with gable-ended slate roofs. The parapeted gables have ashlar copings with small finials. Ridge stacks feature copings; the left-hand stack has one octagonal shaft (the other demolished), the right-hand stack has one demolished shaft and two rebuilt in red brick, and the hall stack comprises one brick shaft and one rendered shaft (20th-century alteration).

The house follows an H-plan facing north-east, with a central hall containing a through-passage at the right-hand end and an integral lateral stack to the rear. Axial stacks serve the cross wings. A stable with loft above is incorporated in the rear of the left-hand cross wing. A wall encloses the space between the rear wings, forming a stable courtyard. A laundry in Tudor Gothic style projects to the right of the right-hand cross wing, dated 1853. The house is two storeys with an attic.

The front elevation displays a 1:2:1 bay arrangement with projecting gabled cross-wings to left and right, symmetrical except for a gabled porch positioned in the angle of the right-hand cross-wing. Early 19th-century 3-light wooden mullioned and transomed casements feature returned hoodmoulds and moulded cills. The central ground floor window and right-hand first-floor window have octagonal pattern lights. A pair of gabled semi-dormers consists of 3-light Tudor-arched wooden casements with hoodmoulds springing from corbels and moulded cills; the centre lights are pointed whilst the outer lights are four-centred. The left-hand window has leaded octagonal-pattern glazing bars; the right-hand windows have wooden octagonal-pattern glazing bars. A 1-light attic window has stone cills and returned hoodmoulds. A Tudor-arched doorway to the right of the central ground-floor window features a returned hoodmould and 19th-century boarded door. A mid-19th-century Gothic stone porch comprises a brick arch with brick hoodmould and parapeted gable with finial.

The left-hand return front contains three blocked (rendered) first-floor windows with moulded stone cills. A first-floor 4-pane sash with moulded stone cill stands off-centre to the right, with a boarded loft door off-centre to the left. Ground-floor fenestration includes a 1-light window to the right with stone cill and lintel, a 20th-century plate-glass window off-centre to the right in a 19th-century opening with returned hoodmould and moulded stone cill, and a blocked window off-centre to the left (rendered) also with returned hoodmould and moulded stone cill. A pair of probably 20th-century boarded sliding double doors is present. A stable door to the left has a segmental brick head.

The right-hand return front has three ground-floor 19th-century small-paned wooden casements: two with flat brick arches and one to the right with a segmental brick-arched head. Three gabled dormers include one with a 19th-century 3-light wooden mullioned and transomed window and two with doorways; these are linked to higher ground on this side of the house by two segmental-arched stone bridges.

The rear elevation of the main range features a pair of first-floor early 19th-century 2-light wooden casements with moulded cills; that to the left is boarded over (as of July 1987 survey) and that to the right has lattice glazing bars. Two-light mid-19th-century ground-floor wooden casements stand to the right. A 19th-century boarded door to the left has a segmental stone-arched head; a loft door stands to the right with a blocked loft doorway to the left. Three ground-floor early 19th-century 4-pane sashes with segmental stone-arched heads and moulded stone cills are present (the centre one replaced in the late 20th century).

The left-hand wing has two first-floor windows to the right: one early 19th-century four-pane sash and one 20th-century top-hung casement inserted in a former larger loft opening (indicated by straight joints). A 1-light ground-floor window off-centre to the right has a segmental stone-arched head. A pair of probably former open-fronted loose boxes to the left has segmental stone arches and cobbled floors. The gable-end of the left-hand wing features a 1-light attic window and a first-floor 19th-century 2-light wooden casements, both with moulded stone cills.

The cobbled courtyard is enclosed by a wall to the rear, possibly an addition (indicated by straight joints). A pair of large boarded doors to the right stands under a segmental stone arch.

The laundry wing has a symmetrical front of 1:1:1 bays with a central gabled break containing the entrance: a boarded door under a brick two-centred Gothic arch with returned brick hoodmould and stone shield dated "1853." Flanking the entrance are 1-light wooden casements with octagonal-pattern glazing bars and returned hoodmould, and a ground-floor 3-light wooden casement with octagonal-pattern glazing bars, stone cill and segmental brick-arched head. Two boarded doors in the rendered left-hand gable end lead to a passageway at the side and rear of the house.

An uncoursed sandstone rubble retaining wall extends to the right-hand side and rear of the house. It incorporates a lean-to with 2-leaf boarded door, and three former privies (roofless at the time of survey).

The interior retains largely early 19th-century fixtures and fittings. The central ground-floor room features match boarding. The right-hand ground-floor room was formerly divided into a rear kitchen and front wing room, now forming a single kitchen with a segmental-arched fireplace at the rear. A mid-19th-century dog-leg staircase in the left-hand wing has winders, stick balusters and chamfered square newel posts. Window jambs are splayed with beaded edges. The first floor of the right-hand wing was probably formerly a hayloft, later converted to domestic accommodation. The rear parts of each wing incorporate stabling with lofts above. The stabling in the rear of the left-hand wing has tiled floors, partitions with grilles above and boarded doors. The laundry wing retains a washing copper, though its attic floor has been removed. Steps against the left-hand end wall lead to the upper entry of the right-hand wing of the house.

This was formerly the home farmhouse to Glenthorne, the house built for the Reverend W. S. Halliday (possibly to his own designs) and also begun in 1829. The farmhouse displays the influence of designs illustrated in P. F. Robinson's Rural Architecture; or a Series of Designs for Ornamental Cottages (first published in 1823), a copy of which the Reverend Halliday possessed.