Low Longmire Farm And Five Associated Agricultural Buildings

Low Longmire Farm is a farmstead with 16th-century origins, with additions from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The complex consists of a farmhouse, bank barn, hayloft, looseboxes and store, calf hull, earth closet, pigsty and watermill. All buildings are constructed of slate and stone rubble beneath pitched slate roofs. The buildings are predominantly rectangular in plan, apart from the bank barn which is T-shaped.

Farmhouse

The farmhouse is a two-storey building of three bays with scattered fenestration to the front and rear elevations and slate sills. The plank front door is located between the left and central bays and stands beneath a segmental arch. The left gable elevation has a small single-storey lean-to and two small windows at attic level. A part-glazed rear door with a concrete block porch lies opposite the front door. There is a second rear door to the west bay and adjacent to this there is a window with a segmental arch. The right gable has a gable stack, and elsewhere there are two ridge stacks. Windows throughout are a mix of sash and casement.

Entrance via the front door leads into a hall running the width of the house. The rear living room has two oak ceiling beams, one chamfered, the other a reused heavily moulded beam supported at its north end by a timber post. The east wall has a chimney breast and an early 18th-century spice cupboard. Oak panelling and 18th and 19th-century panelled doors at the north side of the living room separate the kitchen, staircase and understairs cupboard from the living room. The kitchen has slightly chamfered oak beams and a recess in its east wall now used for shelves. The rear sitting room has a late 19th-century panelled door, a pine sill used as a windowseat and a 20th-century tiled fireplace. An 18th-century panelled door gives access off the hall into a front pantry with slate flagged floor and slate shelves supported on a brick pillar. Further similar pantries are in the mid-18th-century extension.

A late 17th or early 18th-century dog leg staircase is accessed from the rear living room and consists of oak treads and risers, moulded muntin and plank panelling, square beaded newel posts, a rectangular handrail with a beaded top and a 19th-century pine handrail to the lower flight.

The upper floor has six bedrooms and a bathroom and is particularly characterised by its display of late 17th or early 18th-century muntin and plank partitions, panelling and doors on the landing and in four bedrooms and the bathroom within the older part of the house. There is a late 19th-century fireplace in the largest rear bedroom while the east bedroom contains a flue and a recess on the east wall. Access into the two bedrooms within the house's west bay extension is through a door in the front bedroom. The front bedroom in the extension has a recess with panelled sides and rear for a windowseat.

The attic above the central and east bays is accessed via a dog leg staircase off the landing. The staircase has oak treads and risers, square newels and rectangular handrail with beading down the top edge. The roof structure is oak of late 17th or early 18th-century date. There are two small windows either side of a chimney breast in the east wall.

Bank Barn

The bank barn is two storeys. The front elevation has five doors, most with windows adjacent, all beneath a pentice roof. Above are three small windows and a blocked hatchway. Quarried stone in the upper part of the walls relates to a late 19th-century heightening. The north gable has a window to the ground floor and a single-storey attached bull pen with an asymmetrical pitched roof. The south gable has a central ground-floor window and a centrally-placed datestone with the date 1735 and the initials PPA. The rear elevation has double timber doors giving access to the upper floor. An east projection also contains double timber doors with access to the threshing floor. At the end of the east projection there is a single-storey cartshed or garage and in the north east angle there is a single-storey lean-to loosebox.

The south end contains a stable for three horses with a part-cobble and part-cement floor. All fittings including turned harness pegs on a board are late 19th-century. A shippon divided into two parts, each with stalls for eleven cows, occupies the central part. Stalls for four additional cows and two calf hulls occupy the north end of the barn. All cow stalls are made of pine and are late 19th-century. The east projection contains a turnip house, partly cut into the bedrock, with brick walls on the east and west sides and a window in the north wall.

The upper floor has threshing floors and hay storage. The roof structure is five bays long with four kingpost trusses, while that of the east projection is three bays long with two kingpost trusses, all sawn softwood of late 19th-century date.

Hayloft

The hayloft has two distinct builds with a late 17th or early 18th-century south section and a taller 19th-century north section. The front elevation of the south section has a lean-to addition with external steps giving access to the upper floor. There are ground-floor double timber doors and timber infill to the upper floor. The roof is supported by a brick pillar at its north end. The northern section has double timber doors giving access to a cartshed at its south end beneath a relieving arch with slate voussoirs above a timber lintel. Doors at the centre and north ends give access to looseboxes and there is a central door to the upper floor. The south gable has a ground floor window and a vent high in the wall. The rear elevation has a door to the south section and a window to the north section plus numerous ventilation slots. The north gable has a ground-floor window and a ball finial affixed to the apex of the roof. Attached to the north gable are two kennels with monopitched roofs.

The ground floor of the southern section has hardwood beams supporting the ceiling with props inserted. The loft above has a 19th-century pine board floor. Roof timbers are two bays long and largely 17th or early 18th-century date with some 20th-century repairs. The north section contains looseboxes with slate divides and hardwood frames of 19th-century date. One oak manger remains. The upper floor is a hayloft with a pine board floor. Roof timbers are three bays long and a mix of hardwood and softwood, all mid-19th-century.

Calf Hull and Earth Closet

These are two adjacent single-storey structures. The earth closet has doors in its north and south elevations while the calf hull has an entrance in its west elevation and a window beneath the eaves in its south elevation. The earth closet is divided into two sections by a timber partition. The south section has two seats, the north one seat. Above is a small pigeon loft. The calf hull is of two bays with a central roof truss.

Pigsty

The pigsty is a single-storey square building containing a double pigsty with pens beneath a corrugated iron roof at the east end leading into sties beneath a slate roof at the west end. There is a window in the south wall that gives light into both sties.

Watermill

The watermill is a rectangular building of two contemporary sections; the northern is three bays long, the southern a single bay. The front elevation has double timber doors beneath a timber lintel and a small window to the upper floor. A stone shelter projects outward from the wall and protects the doors from draughts. The south bay has an attached single bay structure which formerly housed an overshot waterwheel. There is a door in its south elevation and an opening for the launder that carried the water for the wheel in the west elevation. The remainder of the west elevation contains two windows. The north gable is plain.

The north section has a cobbled floor to its two northern bays and stone flags to its southern bay. Above the southern bay there is a loft with beams, joists and the remains of a plank floor. Surviving machinery includes an iron rod with two pulley wheels attached that was driven by the waterwheel and originally drove the machinery. Other surviving machinery includes the pivot and part of the overshot wheel comprising timber and ironwork.

History

Low Longmire belonged to the Rawlinson family in the 16th century and passed by marriage into the Pennington family of yeoman status in the latter years of the 16th century. The farmhouse was rebuilt in the late 17th century on the site of, and incorporating a moulded beam from, the old Rawlinson house. It is thought that the earlier of the farm's two barns was constructed at about the same time, this being extended to the north during the 19th century. A bank barn was built in 1735 and bears the initials PPA (Paul and Agnes Pennington). During the mid-18th century the farmhouse was enlarged by the addition of an attached interconnecting two-storey addition to the west end. In the late 18th or early 19th century an earth closet was built above which is a small loft possibly used for pigeons; later in the 19th century a calf hull was added to its west side. In the mid-19th century a small water-powered mill was constructed to the south of the farmhouse, and also in the 19th century a double pigsty was built. In the late 19th century the walls of the bank barn were heightened after a fire. During the 19th century the estate passed into the Braithwaite family and then descended with the rest of the Crosthwaite estate to the National Trust in 1987.