Low Wray Farmstead

Low Wray Farmstead is a planned farmstead with integral dwelling, built around 1840 with late 19th-century additions and alterations. It comprises rubble stone brought to courses with worked dressings, ball finials, and slate roof coverings laid to diminishing courses, with some areas replaced in corrugated sheeting. The complex was rebuilt and extended by Dr James Dawson as the home farm for the Wray Castle Estate.

The farmstead follows an evolved courtyard plan. The eastern boundary is formed by a substantial L-shaped two-storey bank barn with central gablet, an advanced wing to the north, and underhousing set below a full-length pentise to the west front. Three doorways with half-glazed doors provide access to standings, and eight window openings—some glazed, some with ventilation screens—light the building. The hayloft floor above contains five openings, the central one a taking-in door flanked by two ventilation-screened openings on either side, all set beneath deep lintels with plain hoodmoulds. The gable to the advanced north wing has two ground floor windows and an upper storey opening with ventilation screen. The rear elevation, set into the bank, features a doorway to the east gable of the north wing providing access to the loft floor from an elevated rear track. Further south sits a low lean-to, then a double doorway to the main hayloft level, with a lean-to extending from eaves level over feed stores accessed by chutes from the rear track.

The stable and coach house extends west and south from the south gable of the barn. The main east-west range has a wide off-centre gablet with decorative barge boards and an oculus in the gable apex. The left-hand side contains a ground floor stable door with overlight flanked by six-over-six pane sash windows. Above is a tall taking-in door with overlight, matching one below the oculus at the centre, which itself has a sash window below and an inserted or altered opening to the right with a two-light glazing bar casement frame. Below this sits an altered doorway, and to the right a two-storey addition extending southwards with a single window to its gable. The farmyard elevation has a gablet incorporating two ventilation openings and slit breathers. Below at first floor level are four openings: two with screens, a third with a six-over-six pane sash frame, and a fourth—a larger inserted sash frame—to the left of centre. The stable range has a central chimney with diagonally-set stacks. A small lean-to extends from the north-west corner, with a later lean-to set against the west gable of the stable. The coach house occupies the upper level of the east end of the stable, its double doorway set within an added porch with a pyramidal roof covered in corrugated sheeting.

The cowhouse comprises two parallel single-storey ranges with a small covered yard between, extending from the north-west corner of the stable and partially enclosing the yard on the west side. The integral dwelling house, located at the north end of the yard, is in two phases, both of double-pile plan form. The earlier northern phase is two storeys and three bays with gable stacks and elongated quoining to the corners. The central doorway is set within an open porch and has a half-glazed six-panel door. Flanking the doorway are tall two-light casements, and above are three upper floor window openings with semi-circular heads to two-light casements. The southern extension has a set-back rear pile; both ranges feature doorways and sash frames to their south ends. All window openings have deep lintels and hood moulds.

The bank barn interior contains altered underhousing standings but retains an extant water turbine and chamber at the south end, with ground floor vertical and horizontal shafting, bevel gearing and belt drums. The hayloft roof is carried on shallow strutted king post trusses and three tiers of purlins, the upper tiers with diagonal bracing. The stable roof is similarly detailed. The stable interior contains wooden stall partitions and vertical wall boarding, with lined-out wall plaster surviving together with moulded cornices. A short colonnade is carried on Tuscan columns, and the stable incorporates a harness room with a cast-iron range and built-in storage cupboards for tack. An upper floor hay loft is accessed via stairs to a groom's room with fireplace.

An earlier farmstead occupied this site, which was sold in 1824 to John Marr. In the late 1830s it was sold to James Dawson, who remodelled and extended the steading as part of his developing Wray Castle estate. The architect H.P. Horner, designer of Wray Castle, is thought to have possibly been involved in the modifications to the farmstead, which was further extended in the later 19th century with enlargement of the dwelling house and addition of the cowhousing and covered yard. The steading was purchased by the National Trust in 1948.