Ellergill House Barn, Embsay

This bank barn, also known as a combination barn, was constructed in the early 19th century. It is built of coursed gritstone rubble and quarry-faced block with tooled gritstone quoins, sills, lintels and jambs, and has a stone slate gabled roof.

The building has a square plan and rises through three storeys, with the north and east elevations built into a bank.

Exterior

North Gable: This elevation has quoined corners and three vertical tiers of ventilation slots. To the left is a large double cart door, with a central low window fitted with double door/shutters, and a door to the right; the latter two openings both appear to be later additions. A substantial re-used arched timber lintel supports the wall over the cart door, and there are openings and projecting stones to either side, possibly indicating the position of a former cart porch. Set within the gable are a further two ventilation slots and a ventilator opening with an ashlar stone surround located within the apex of the gable. A covered rectangular light well, situated within the yard floor at the western end and two others towards the eastern end of the elevation, would have lit the interior of the lower ground floor.

East Elevation: A bank partially obscures the lower ground floor of this wall. It has quoined corners, four tiers of ventilation slots and an off-centre four-pane window within an ashlar stone surround. There are four rectangular light wells, three of which are blocked, located at regular intervals against the foot of the wall that would have lit the lower ground floor shippons.

South Gable: This wall has quoined corners with two tiers of ventilation slots towards each end and irregularly spaced ventilation slots in the central portion of the wall, two graduated rows in the gable, and a rectangular gable ventilator in the apex. The lower ground floor has two windows and two doorways. The windows have ashlar lintels and sills; the westernmost has a timber window frame with two panes of glass and a hinged slotted ventilator panel below, while the other has two panes and no ventilators. The two doorways have ashlar lintels, quoined jambs and herringbone incised doorsteps, flanked by drain outlets. The left-hand (west) doorway has wrought-iron catches and hinge pins for an outward opening stable door (no longer present) set into the outer faces of the jambs. The right-hand (east) doorway retains its original inwards opening stable door with wrought-iron hinges and a twist latch. The upper panel of the stable door has a decorative five-slot 'hit and miss' ventilation grille with a sliding timber baffle on the interior. The verge of the gable has wrought-iron straps designed to prevent lateral movement of the stone slates.

West Elevation: This wall has quoined corners. The lower ground floor has a doorway to the extreme left (north) leading directly into the stables, a small slightly off-centre window with a single pane of glass lighting a transverse corridor, and a blocked window which at some time has been enlarged into a doorway and then subsequently re-blocked. Of the two, only the blocked window has an original lintel, sill and jamb. There is a tier of blocked ventilation slits to each end of the wall. A modern four-pane timber window with plain ashlar surrounds is situated towards the northern end of the upper ground floor, and there are two similar windows to the first floor. A square patch of cement render on the wall, between the north door and the corridor window, is a witness mark of a former lean-to structure.

The attached garden walls built against the east and south elevations of the barn are later features and are not of special architectural or historic interest. The garden walls are excluded from the listing.

Interior

Lower Ground Floor: This floor was intended for the housing of livestock and is divided into four distinct areas: the east, west and north-east shippons, and a stable. All are fitted with whitewashed timber stalls or boskins. The east and west shippons are accessed by the doors in the south elevation. The larger west shippon has ten stalls, five to either side of a central manure passage with semi-circular drainage channels to either side. The stalls are divided by low timber-framed plank partitions with a mixture of raised stone sett and flag floors, some of which are missing. The stalls are served by feeding passages or byngs, accessed by a southern open passageway and at the northern end by a transverse corridor. A stone stairs rises to the barn floor against the corridor wall. The east shippon has a single row of five double stalls with a wide manure passage and an open stone drain running against the east wall. A doorway at the northern end of the manure passage leads into the north-east shippon, which has three timber double calf stalls on raised concrete floors laid over the original stone setts. The stalls are served by a byng on their western side, which is accessed by a doorway at the northern end of the east byng. The interior appears to have originally been lit by two light wells in the north wall that have been blocked; similarly, there are three further light wells in the east wall of the barn that formerly lit both the north-east and east shippons. One of these light wells has a barred timber window frame and remains unblocked; in addition, there is a lighting niche for a lamp or candle towards the southern end of the east wall.

The ceiling of the lower ground floor is formed by the planks of the floor above, which are carried on substantial 8-metre-long timber floor beams. The beams are supported on multiple timber stanchion props, the bases of which rest on slotted stone setts in the floor. A blocked rectangular opening in the ceiling above the west shippon formally vented into a ventilation flue. Although the walls and timbers are all whitewashed, one of the joists in the north-east shippon bears a late 18th-century or early 19th-century Baltic timber mark. A stable is situated in the north-west corner of the building, entered from the transverse corridor or directly from the doorway in the west wall. It has a double timber horse stall and a loose box with timber mangers, served by three fodder hatches in the transverse corridor wall. A light well with a timber window frame and splayed jambs is situated in the north wall and has been covered over at yard level.

Barn (Upper Ground Floor): The majority of the L-plan timber floor is a large open space, open to the soffit of the roof. A tall rectangular section timber ventilation flue for venting the shippons rises from the floor to the roof. A stone stair rises from the west shippon to the barn via an open hatch in the floor against the south wall of the internal accommodation/flat. The roof has four bays and is supported by three 12-metre queen post trusses carrying four purlins and between six and seven rafters per bay on each side of the ridge. At least two of the roof trusses have Baltic timber marks.

Internal Accommodation/Flat (Upper Ground Floor and First Floor): A rectangular plan two-storey rubble construction flat with a single-storey extension to the east and flat roofs occupies the north-west corner of the barn. The walls of the flat within the barn are blind and the east elevation of the upper storey is built of brick. The flat is accessed externally by a doorway in the north gable wall. It comprises a single large kitchen diner to the lower floor lit by a large window in the north wall fitted with double door/shutters. A winder stairs leads to an upper sitting room, bathroom and bedroom. The window sill of the northern window in the west wall is formed by a re-sited 19th-century stone sink, and a mock stone fireplace has been built against the north wall. Two of the beams in the ceiling of the ground floor display Baltic timber marks.

The 20th-century internal divisions, fittings and fixtures of the flat within the barn are not of special architectural or historic interest.