Low House Farm

Low House Farm

Low House Farm is a linear range of buildings oriented northeast to southwest, set on the edge of a narrow valley. It comprises a 17th-century former long house, an 18th-century farmhouse, a bank barn, and associated structures, all constructed from local rubble stone, river-washed boulders and slate, with graduated Westmorland slate roofs.

The 17th-century long house is entered via a cross passage with domestic accommodation to the left and animal housing to the right. The main southeast elevation has two storeys under a pitched roof with a left gable stack. The domestic section is lime-washed and features a single central ground-floor eight-pane window with fine glazing bars. At first-floor level, two small windows are set immediately beneath the eaves; the left window is a mid-19th-century three-over-three horned sash with a stone sill, while the right window is a fixed 12-pane frame with fine glazing bars, possibly occupying a formerly larger opening. A narrow-boarded door to the right provides entry to the former cross passage. The animal housing has a door in the southeast wall and displays a triangular group of pigeon nesting and perching ledges at upper level. The rear elevation is partially obscured by a modern lean-to extension but retains an entrance at the right end, which formerly connected to a now-demolished rear unit.

The interior cross passage has a wide-boarded floor and plastered walls. A wide-boarded door opens from the centre-left into the single-roomed domestic space, which contains a solid floor, plastered walls, and visible upper-floor beams and joists. At the southwest end, truncated blade sections of a former cruck truss and a low tie beam are embedded in the walls. A low stone inglenook is set beneath the tie beam, with an inserted brick bread oven to the right. A door leads through the rear northwest wall to the exterior, though it formerly connected to a small demolished rear unit. A simple timber staircase with solid balustrade in the southeast corner provides access to the upper floor. The first floor is subdivided into three crude compartments by early wide-boarded partitions. A substantial chimneystack against the southwest wall incorporates river cobbles in its upper parts. The roof is formed of simple trusses with double purlins. The attached animal housing has a first floor supported on a single reused beam, with wide boards above the rafters.

The 18th-century farmhouse is attached to the left of the long house. Its main southeast elevation is slightly set back and has two storeys and three bays, rendered, under a pitched roof with a left gable stack. A central ground-floor entrance features an 18th-century five-panel door with a porch. To the right is an 18th-century 12-over-12 sash window with fine glazing bars. The window to the left and three first-floor openings are mid-19th-century insertions containing four large-pane horned sash windows. The unrendered rear elevation comprises a gabled offshut. The slightly projecting left part has a ground-floor entrance and 24-pane vertical sliding sashes above with fine glazing bars. The right part has a smaller sliding sash to the upper right and a 16-pane fixed window at ground floor.

The interior features a long central hall with a slate flag floor, thought to have been created by modifying an original two-unit plan. The left room has an 18th-century five-panel door, floorboard floor, and chimneybreast. The right room has an 18th-century five-panel door, slate-flagged floor, and retains fitted cupboards of early form flanking a chimneybreast. The large rear offshut contains a central 18th-century dog-leg stair with stick balusters and simple newel posts, with a dairy to the left featuring slate shelves and a large kitchen to the right. The first floor comprises five rooms—three over the original unit house and two over the slightly later rear offshut. Panelled doors and other features of interest are present, including a large chimney feature in the front right bedroom, thought to represent the former external stack of the adjacent earlier farmhouse. The partition wall separating this room from the adjacent space is of timber-stud form. One room retains a mid-19th-century cast-iron fireplace.

The bank barn is attached to the left. Its main southeast elevation displays traces of a large boulder plinth and is constructed of slate and rounded river boulders with three rows of prominent through stones and brick-lined ventilation slits at eaves level, under a pitched roof. At the left end, evidence of a wide ground-floor opening, now blocked, survives. The central section comprises a byre with an entrance and a pair of triangular ventilation slots to the left. A cart shed to the right has an arched entrance. The right end houses a stable with a door to the left and square window to the right, beneath which remains a mounting block. A winnowing door at first-floor level indicates the first-floor threshing barn. The rear elevation is of similar construction with prominent through stones and eaves ventilation slits. The main first-floor entry is through a double-door pentice opening, approached by a ramped cart access flanked with rubble walls, with double-boarded doors featuring strap hinges. A ground-floor entrance (now within a modern lean-to) has an early timber-boarded door, probably re-used.

The barn interior features a central byre fully fitted with animal partitions and a stable to the right with three original stalls complete with mangers. The first-floor threshing barn has a roof structure of six trusses with triple purlins.

Associated with the main range is a single-storey L-shaped stone building with slate roof situated immediately east, and a small stone-built privy to the north, complete with its wooden toilet structure.