Geslings

Geslings is a farmhouse with attached barn converted to a dwelling at an early date. The buildings are now unoccupied and used as store and stock shelter. The farmhouse is probably of late 17th-century date, extended in the 18th century, and has been altered and recently restored externally.

The building is constructed of roughly coursed sandstone rubble with quoins and has a stone slate roof. It follows a single-depth 2-unit plan on an east-west axis facing north, with a further 2 units at the east end. The exterior is 2 storeys with 4 windows on the main range only, marked by a quoined vertical joint between the 2 portions.

The ground floor of the main range features a wide gabled porch at the centre with an outer doorway having a segmentally undercut monolith lintel and stone slate hoodmould, and a segmental-headed inner doorway with a pegged double-layer door. To the left are chamfered stone mullion windows of 2 and 3 lights (the former being the fire-window) with linked stone slate hoodmoulds, followed by a similar 3-light window to the right and a segmental-headed 1-light window with a moulded surround and linked hoodmoulds. The upper floor has 3 similar 2-light mullioned windows and a segmental-headed 1-light window above the other. A corbelled gable chimney stands to the right, flanked by very small attic windows, with a square ridge chimney at the junction to the left.

The range continued to the left has a plain doorway offset right, a square 4-pane fixed window to the right with a monolith lintel, another square window to the left, and traces of a former oblong window above the doorway. Its east gable wall shows rubble voussoirs of a former wide segmental-headed doorway, possibly a former wagon doorway, and corbels of a former chimney. The rear of the main range has one small square window at first floor of the 2nd bay, while the converted range has a doorway and a window.

Internally, the main range contains a stone partition wall to the right of the doorway on the ground floor only. The housepart to the left has 2 axial beams with scored joists and a large bressumer beam approximately 2 metres from the east wall. A C18 rectangular fireplace with a C19 iron range is present, with a doorway to the right of the fireplace providing steps up to the eastern portion. Traces of a former staircase mounting the rear wall from east to west remain visible. The upper floor and fireplace have been removed from the west bay. The 1st floor is apparently unpartitioned, with white-washed walls and ceiling in the portion over the housepart, which bears children's mural paintings on the east wall. Two principal rafter trusses are present.

The eastern portion contains a housepart in the 2nd bay with a late 18th-century rectangular fireplace featuring an ogee-arched sooker-stone, a built-in cupboard in the rear wall (lacking a door), bacon hooks, and 2 pairs of iron ceiling racks near the front and rear walls. An axial partition divides the 1st bay, above which a corbelled chimney is visible. A principal rafter roof truss is present.

The origin of the eastern portion is not known, but structural evidence suggests an 18th-century conversion for a second branch of the same family. The building forms a group with a barn approximately 10 metres to the north-east.