Hollins Farm

Hollins Farm

A farmhouse of the early 18th century with associated farm buildings dating to around 1800.

The main house is built of random rubblestone with a blue and grey slate roof laid to diminishing courses, and sandstone slates to the rear lean-to. It follows a direct entry plan with two cells and end stacks, with stairs positioned in an added rear wing.

The south-facing front elevation is two storeys and two bays. A large square end stack stands to the left, with a narrower end stack to the right, its flue contained fully within the gable wall thickness. The façade is quoined with no evidence of heightening or widening. The entrance, slightly offset to the left, is protected by a gabled open porch. The door is double boarded with broad irregular boards, the inner counter boards clearly adzed, and hung on spear-headed strap hinges. The windows are roughly aligned to create a broadly symmetrical façade. Three-over-three hornless sash windows have been installed, although the upper right window is a 20th-century casement replacement. The lower right and both upper windows retain lintels with stubs of former flat-faced mullions. The lower left window, inserted around 1800, cuts through a rough slate drip course. To the left, the original two-light flat-faced mullioned window remains in situ but infilled with rubble stone.

The east gable wall is quoined to the rear with a marked butt joint to the rear wing. It is blind except for a tiny attic opening. The rear wing is also quoined and contains a single two-over-two horned sash window on the first floor.

The north elevation features a gabled wing to the left, quoined with projecting through stones. It has two windows: a fixed twelve-pane stair window to the right with a rough timber lintel, and a ground-floor window to the left with 20th-century replacement joinery. The lean-to to the right is unquoined with a 20th-century enlarged window.

The west elevation shows evidence of a blocked ground-floor opening to the rear of the stack, apparently converted to a cupboard internally. Above is an inserted window with a concrete lintel. The lean-to has a back door with a large modern replacement window beneath a rough timber lintel.

Interior

The forehouse (principal room) is entered directly and partly screened by a planked baffle extending roughly halfway into the room, fixed to one of two chamfered ceiling beams spanning front to back. The chimney breast is flanked by large spice cupboards. The left cupboard retains oak joinery including a fielded panel door. The right cupboard, larger and probably 19th century, has pine joinery with a plank door hung on strap hinges, and may reuse a blocked window opening. The position of the blocked mullion window on the front elevation is marked by its internal timber lintel. The fireplace appears to be a late 20th-century creation, though it incorporates possible medieval stonework.

The parlour is a slightly smaller room divided from the forehouse by a masonry wall and a plank door of regular planks. It has two roughly chamfered ceiling beams spanning between the gable and partition wall. The fireplace is modern, with a spice cupboard recess to its right lacking joinery.

The rear wing contains a small stair hall with a simple hardwood dogleg staircase with handrails spanning between newel posts without balusters, considered 18th century in date and original position with only minor later modifications. The door to the under-stairs cupboard is plank and ledged with decorative moulding applied to both sides, similar to examples dated to the late 17th century. The stair hall is partitioned from the eastern half of the rear wing by an 18th-century stud partition with lath and plaster infill panels. The ground-floor room (originally probably a dairy) is accessed through a door formed from two broad hewn planks joined by hewn batons, hung on original spear-headed strap hinges and closed with a timber latch. The door lintel to the lean-to is formed from a substantial former ceiling beam, chamfered with a run-out stop. The lean-to has its own chamfered ceiling beam.

On the upper floor, the room over the former dairy is separated from the stair hall by a similar stud and infill panel partition. Its door is probably early 19th century, of eight fielded panels with its fair face to the landing. Adjacent is a matching door to the bedroom above the parlour, which retains a hearthstone but has lost its fireplace. This bedroom is separated from the room above the forehouse by a stud partition (rather than a masonry wall) of unknown construction and appears not to have been separately heated. It has been subdivided in the 20th century to provide a bathroom.

The principal range retains its traditional roof structure including two collared trusses supporting double purlins that are partially trenched and partly supported by cleats, with pegged joints. Most of the common rafters also appear to be original.

The house has a small front garden enclosed by a drystone wall.

To the south of the house stands a set of farm buildings dating to around 1800. These include a south-west-facing barn with a small undercroft at its south-east end, and an attached range of outbuildings (a shed and stable) set at right angles facing north-west. All are traditionally built of rubble stone with courses of projecting through stones and rough quoining, beneath blue and grey slate roofing laid to diminishing courses. The barn's principal entrance has a flat arch of rubblestone voussoirs. The roof structure appears original, with simple collared trusses supporting a ridge beam and back purlins. The interiors appear to have undergone some alteration, and to the rear, infilling the angle between the two ranges, is a large 20th-century addition which is not of special interest.