Blea Beck Approximately 160 Metres North Of Hacra

DENT

SD68NE DENTDALE 162-1/10/24 (North side) Blea Beck, approx. 160m north of Hacra

II

Small farmhouse with added shippon; now derelict and dilapidated. Probably late C17 and C18 respectively; altered. Large roughly-coursed sandstone rubble with through-stones and quoins, stone slate roof. One-unit house approx. 6x5 metres on east-west axis facing south but with the doorway in the north wall; 1-bay barn added at east end. EXTERIOR: 2 low storeys and 2 windows. The ground floor has a narrow blocked doorway (probably formerly a window) offset left of centre, a narrow 1-light fire-window to the left, partly blocked, and a similar 1-light window to the right, completely blocked. The upper floor has 2 small square windows, that to the left enlarged by the removal of its sill and that to the right blocked. At the left gable is a large corbelled chimney (top removed). Second bay of roof partly collapsed. The shippon to the right has a square window. Rear: the house has a square-headed doorway in the centre, with a monolith lintel, and a narrow blocked 1-light window to the left at ground floor; the shippon has a doorway offset right and a square window at 1st floor to the left. INTERIOR: 3 lateral beams, that at the west end a former smokehood bressumer, but both the others mostly collapsed; stop-chamfered joists surviving at the west end; oak corbel to original chimney, underbuilt with inserted internal chimney stack (fireplace removed). Cupboard recess to left of former fireplace; remains of white-washed hair-plaster; no surviving evidence of staircase. Principal-rafter roof truss (purlins on east side collapsed). HISTORICAL NOTE: an instructive survival of a 1-unit 2-storey farmhouse, with important implications for the history of farmhouses in this dale. Other examples survive only as parts of subsequently enlarged houses, e.g. West Stonehouse (qv).

Listing NGR: SD6958688549