Collinfield Farmhouse and two bank barns

This listing comprises a 17th-century farmhouse with an 18th-century addition and two bank barns dating from the late 18th or early 19th century. All buildings are constructed of stone rubble with graduated Westmorland slate roofs. The farmhouse is roughcast and rendered.

The site forms a small dispersed farmstead consisting of the farmhouse, an L-shaped bank barn, and a rectangular bank barn. The farmhouse began as a two-unit, gable-entry plan with a main living room and parlour. This evolved into a three-unit dwelling with the addition of a single bay to the north in the 18th century and the creation of a cross passage entered from a new doorway in the east elevation.

Farmhouse Exterior

All window openings have stone sills with 20th-century timber replacement frames. The original part of the farmhouse has two storeys and two bays beneath a pitched roof of graduated slate with corniced end gable stacks. The south elevation features a secondary central entrance with a modern replacement door and later porch, flanked by rectangular windows on either side. Above is a continuous slate dripmould and two rectangular first-floor windows. The original roof line is uneven, indicating the presence of an early roof structure.

The attached single-bay addition is slightly set back from and lower than the original house, but also has a pitched slate roof with a substantial external chimney stack on the right end. It has an original entrance and a first-floor rectangular window above, the former now contained within a later single-storey lean-to extension. The right return has a central external chimney stack and a single first-floor window. The left return has a first-floor dripmould and an attic light with a dripmould above.

The rear elevation of the original house has an attached two-storey stair projection with a pitched roof and ground and first-floor windows to the side walls. Attached to its rear is a single-storey pitched roof addition. The rear of the 18th-century addition has a ground-floor window with dripmould.

L-Shaped Bank Barn

This two-storey bank barn stands immediately adjacent to the farmhouse and is probably the earliest farm building. It is oriented north to south, with its west side embedded into rising ground, and is built of stone rubble with quoins beneath a pitched roof of graduated slate.

The south gable has a ground-floor entrance with a flat stone arch and slate dripmould over. Above and to the right are four lines of through stones and an owl hole to the apex. The east elevation has three regularly-spaced ground-floor entrances beneath stone lintels, two with historic boarded doors. The more southerly entrance is now blocked with stone. There are four small ground-floor window openings, and most door and window openings have dripmoulds. A single centrally-placed pitching door is set within a much larger opening with timber lintel and stone sill, now blocked, and to either side are the remains of about five square ventilation holes.

The north gable has a single-storey attached lean-to, and above is a probable blocked window with an owl hole to the apex. The west elevation has a wide, full-height central threshing entrance to the first floor, reached by an earthen ramp, and to the left is a pair of small, square ventilation openings with stone sills. To the right of the threshing door the barn wall projects forwards in the form of a pentice roof, and this projection has an attached later brick lean-to.

Rectangular Bank Barn

This two-storey bank barn is oriented east to west and built of stone rubble with quoins beneath a pitched roof of graduated slate. The west gable has a chamfered left corner, a single ground-floor window with a stone sill and hood mould, and an opening to the right, now blocked. Above is a large ventilation slit and an owl hole to the apex.

The north elevation has a central, full-height, quoined first-floor threshing door with a pentice roof. There is a pair of large ventilation slits to the left and a similar slit to the right. The south elevation has three openings with timber lintels and stone dripmoulds: the most westerly opens into the undercroft and has a long timber lintel that also runs above a single blocked window immediately to the right. The central opening is at first-floor level and is partially blocked, forming a winnowing/pitching door. The most easterly opening accesses the undercroft. The upper part of the north-east corner of this elevation has partially collapsed.

The east gable has a single central window to the undercroft and is otherwise blind. The gable apex and part of the left wall has collapsed, and the gable end is leaning outwards.

Farmhouse Interior

The 18th-century addition comprises a single ground-floor room with stop-chamfered ceiling beams and a stone, tapering chimney breast to the north wall. A plank and batten door of mixed widths with strap hinges and a bar latch is fitted to the original gable entry of the house in the south-west corner of the room. This opens into a short heck passage with a boarded partition of varying width timber boards, terminating at a substantial, chamfered heck post within the main living room.

The main living room has plain plastered walls and a pair of substantial, adzed ceiling beams; the rafters are chamfer stopped. The more northerly beam is a bressumer or fire beam that formed an original inglenook and formerly supported a fire hood. The inglenook now has a later chimneybreast with a 20th-century range and fitted cupboards to a right alcove. The ceiling beams of the main living room project through an inserted 18th-century plaster partition and terminate in stopped chamfers at a third substantial ceiling beam now within the inserted passage.

The full-length, original plank and muntin timber partition of the main living room is retained as the south side of the passage and comprises a mixture of boards of differing width. The partition has an original central doorway fitted with a wide-boarded panelled door with strap hinges and a bar latch. This opens into the adjacent parlour, which has plain painted plaster walls and a later fire breast with 20th-century hearth.

An opening at the west end of the corridor has a wide-boarded three-panelled door and an upright door handle of 17th or 18th-century form. This door opens into the rear stair projection, and to the right of the stair is a buttery entered through a wide three-panelled door with later square opening and an upright door handle. The room has roughly plastered walls, slate benches on stone supports, and a rectangular alcove. This room opens into a second larder housed in an extension to the turret and is similarly fitted out.

An 18th-century oak dog-leg staircase rises to the first floor and is lit by a stair window. The first floor has wooden floorboards of varying width and several rooms including one above the 18th-century addition. One room retains a plank and plaster panelled wall, and another a 19th-century chimneypiece. There are a number of rustic door cases, one with an overlight, and plank and batten doors of various styles and board widths, mostly of 17th and 18th-century form with contemporary door furniture including strap hinges, bar latches, and a key box with incised decoration.

The simple staircase continues to the intact second floor, which includes a large raised storage area. Part of the roof structure of the original two-unit building can be seen through an opening from the stair projection: it comprises a pair of cruck trusses, some with extremely curved members, double purlins and a ridge piece. There is evidence of alteration and additions to the roof structure including rustic king posts. There is also a cruck pair embedded within the rear west wall of the original dwelling, from which the historic double purlin roof structure of the rear stair turret projects.

L-Shaped Barn Interior

The bank barn has a first-floor full-length threshing floor with storage to either side, and cow houses and loose boxes to the undercrofts. The first floor is accessed from ground level through the west elevation and retains a pegged triangular truss double purlin roof structure with ridge piece, comprising three triangular trusses. The undercroft retains its original timber structure and also contains historic byre fittings, including rows of timber and slate stalls, some replaced with mid-20th-century byre fittings.

Rectangular Barn Interior

The first-floor threshing barn has three waney, but spindly, triangular trusses forming a double purlin roof with ridge piece. At undercroft level there is a full-width stable with original timber and slate stalls and cobbled floor to the western part. A byre forms the eastern part, which retains the timber undercroft structure and two sets of timber byres separated by a manure/feeding channel.