Wetheral Abbey Farm

Wetheral Abbey Farm is a model farm built in 1857 by James Stewart of Carlisle, incorporating elements from a medieval priory and a post-medieval farmstead. The eastern part of the farm was demolished in the mid-20th century.

The buildings are constructed of red sandstone with ashlar dressings and roofed with graduated Westmorland and Welsh slate. The farmstead follows a courtyard plan with rectangular ranges arranged around a yard, and a T-shaped farmhouse with an additional east range set slightly back from the west side.

The Farmhouse

The farmhouse is two storeys high with a partial cellar beneath pitched roofs. It features ashlar quoins, coped gables and verges, prominent water tables, stone finials, a plinth, and a sill band. The windows are rectangular with flush ashlar surrounds, mostly fitted with six-over-six un-horned sash frames.

The four-bay south elevation has a gable chimney stack at the left end. The left bay contains a window on each floor. The slightly projecting gabled entrance bay in the centre has the main entrance with a window above, while the further projecting gabled right end bay also has windows on both floors plus a narrow attic light. The ground floor windows and door all have bracketed hoodmoulds. The entrance has a six-panel door with a tripartite rectangular light above. Set back to the right is the blind gable of the attached east range.

The left return is blind and features a quoined central external chimney stack. The two-bay right return, possibly a later east range, is plainer and lacks the sill band. It has a gable chimney stack on the left, a pair of windows beneath the eaves, a large window on the ground floor left, and an inserted window opening with a modern casement frame on the right (replacing an original large window). An attached set of stone steps leads down to the farmyard.

The four-bay north elevation has a projecting gabled bay containing a plain entrance flanked by windows, with a first floor window and narrow attic light above. The right bay has a large stair window with a flat-roofed porch below, and a ground floor window to the right with a bracketed hoodmould. The blind gable of the attached east range projects forward on the left.

Interior of the Farmhouse

The original plan of the building is retained, with the only modifications being the subdivision of the east range first floor with lightweight partitions. The ground floor retains a range of original fittings including moulded plaster cornices, skirting boards, panelled reveals, soffits, architraves, and four-panel doors. The stair hall features a decorative corbelled stair arch, and the winder stair has an open string, stick balusters, and a ramped mahogany handrail. One original stone fireplace with hexagonal jambs survives; the other two are mid-20th century replacements. The first floor has original four-panel doors (now stripped) with original door furniture, along with architraves, skirtings, some simple cornices, and two original fireplaces.

The Farmstead Buildings

The farmstead comprises a variety of two-storey buildings arranged around three sides of a rectangular yard, all constructed of red sandstone with ashlar dressings. Windows and doors are mostly set in flush red ashlar sandstone surrounds with narrow-boarded doors.

West Range

The two-storey west range is built of irregular stonework beneath a shallow Welsh slate roof, pitched to the south and hipped to the north. The undulating roofline suggests the presence of an original roof structure. This range is believed to be a byre with hayloft above, and appears to be an earlier building incorporated into the 1857 farmstead.

The courtyard-facing elevation has a pair of door openings with alternating quoins and chamfered jambs. Several ventilation slits pierce the first floor walls, and there is a pitching door and a later brick-built external stair at the north end. The left end bay has a window fitted with a timber ventilation frame and a brick-built chimney stack. The left return has a central opening and a large window above. The right return has a ventilation slit and a ground floor opening.

The rear elevation has a pair of large openings and ventilation slits to the upper floor. On the ground floor, a pair of former doors in surrounds with alternating quoins (opposing those on the main elevation) are now partially blocked and form windows. The end bay has a narrow rectangular pitched-roof projection with plain bargeboards, an entrance, and two large openings. It is constructed upon the raised garden area and therefore dates to the 1857 reconfiguration of the farm.

The south end of the west range contains a feed preparation room with a timber ladder to the upper floor, a boiler in one corner associated with a brick flue, and a stone slab table. A door leads into the full-height rear narrow projection (now subdivided), thought to be a crop store. The remainder of the range's very low ground floor is divided into three byres, two of which have whitewashed walls and a central manure passage flanked by raised, kerbed cobbled areas.

North Range

The north range, abutting the north bay of the byre, is a taller T-shaped building with a pitched slate roof. The courtyard-facing south elevation has a wide, tall arched cart entrance with alternating quoins and a small window to the left. The first floor has a pair of windows with ventilation frames. Immediately to the right of the cart entrance, which appears to be an insertion, there is a quoined building line running the full height of the range. To the right of this line the stonework is smaller and less regularly coursed.

Beyond this line is a blocked entrance with a flush lintel and alternating quoins similar to those in the byre range, with a small window to the right. Further right is a wide double opening and a second single opening with similar alternating quoins and lintels. The first floor is blind except for a door set immediately above the double opening. The gabled right return is blind with a circular ventilation hole at the apex.

The rear elevation is largely blind with an attached rectangular former engine house featuring a corrugated asbestos pitched roof, a double opening on its east side, and a window in the north gable. Immediately to the left is a small opening with a lintel which might be associated with the mechanism of the original apsidal gin gang.

The north range comprises a threshing barn divided into two parts (along the building line visible on the exterior) by a suspended brick wall supported on a substantial sawn beam. The western part has a flagged threshing floor and a rear door opening into the former engine house. The lower eastern part of the barn has an inserted sawn-timber floor supported on a substantial square timber and an earth floor, with a timber stair giving access to the upper floor.

South Range

The low two-storey south range has a hipped Welsh slate roof (with stone slate courses on the right return) and a pitched-roof projecting cross range at the truncated east end. The west end forms a cart shed with granary above, projecting to the rear and reached by a rear external stone stair.

The courtyard-facing north elevation has a rectangular double cart opening with a central stone pillar. The right return has three first floor windows and two ground floor windows with a variety of fixed pane and ventilation frames. A double entrance with alternating quoins sits at the right end.

Attached to the east end of the granary is a pair of stables with hayloft above, each with a first floor window and pitching door, and a single ground floor window. The original stable doors have both been widened with steel lintels, leaving original door jambs on one side only. The rear stable elevation has upper ventilation slits and an open-fronted lean-to divided into sections, probably an implement shed.

The original function of the cross range is unclear but probably formed further animal housing with storage above. A small single-storey pitched-roofed building attached to the north end is considered to have functioned as a dairy. The quoined rear elevation of the cross range has an original window and door opening (the latter blocked) and an inserted entrance to the right (both with alternating jambs), plus upper ventilation slits. A triangular witness mark of the lost eastern part of the south range (containing the blocked entrance) demonstrates that this was single storey with a pitched roof and a narrow rear outshut. The cross range left return has a pitching door and a double entrance with alternating jambs on the ground floor.

The south range retains a metal manger in one of the stables and there is a ladder stair in the eastern cross wing, with a blocked wide entrance to the right with a timber lintel. The latter wing retains an original upper floor carried on timber corbels, and there is an original roof structure to the granary and the stables, the latter later strengthened with steel beams.

Garden Walls and Gates

Garden walls attached to and surrounding the farmhouse are laid in roughly regular courses with rusticated, chamfered coping. They are pierced by a pair of entrances with semi-circular jambs and cast-iron gates, the south-eastern entrance reached by a pair of stone steps.

The 20th century silo, the 20th century agricultural buildings at the north-east and south-east corners and in the centre of the farmstead, along with the small shed at the extreme south side, are not of special interest and are excluded from the listing.