Newbiggin Hall Farmhouse And Attached Outbuildings.

Newbiggin Hall Farmhouse and Attached Outbuildings

A farmhouse with attached outbuildings, dated 1767 with 19th-century alterations and additions. The building is constructed of coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings, brick ridge chimneys, and a slate roof laid to diminishing courses, though parts of the roof have been covered with 20th-century corrugated sheeting.

The buildings are arranged in a linear plan with a double-pile house at the centre, flanked by attached outbuildings at either end, forming the northwest side of a U-shaped steading.

The front (southeast) elevation presents a 2-storey, 2-bay house at its centre, apparently refronted in the 19th century with regularly coursed masonry. A central doorway with ashlar surround and lintel is inscribed 'l:j:j: 1767'. The door is 4-panelled with the upper 2 panes glazed. Flanking the doorway at ground and first-floor levels are 4-pane sliding sash windows set within ashlar surrounds with moulded projecting cills. To the left, beneath the same roof line, is a 3-bay stable and trap house with over loft and grain store. A single ground-floor opening to the far left is flanked by square windows, with 2 tiers of slit breathers above. To the right are a pair of over-loft doorways, each with plain boarded doors—the left giving access to a timber-boarded over-loft floor, the right to a narrow, lime ash-floored grain store. The upper floor is accessed by a flight of stone steps with red brick supporting walls incorporating a kennel in the northeast face. Further right is a former trap house doorway, now infilled to form a doorway with flanking window. To the right of the house stands a lower 3-bay barn of coursed rubble sandstone beneath a 20th-century corrugated sheeting roof. It has a full-height arch-headed double doorway at its centre with planked doors. To the left is a square opening with slatted shutter, and to the right, a lean-to projects against the northeast gable with a low doorway in its front face.

The rear elevation displays masonry of varied pattern, mostly coursed rubble with some snecked work suggesting partial rebuilding. The house extends northwest into the rear part of the outbuilding. Window openings are irregularly disposed, mostly comprising 4 and 6-pane 19th-century sashes, with one set at half-landing level to light the stair bay at the centre of the house. A smaller first-floor window to the right-hand bay has a chamfered surround. A small square brick stack sits at the centre of the rear wall, and a low single-storey outbuilding projects from the right-hand side of the house. The barn to the left has 3 doorways, a single ground-floor window, and 2 taking-in doors for the former loft.

The interior of the house contains a large jowelled hearth surround with moulded mantle shelf in the northeast ground-floor room, flanked by panelled cupboards. The southwest room has a smaller lugged surround with mantle shelf and flanking cupboards. Panelled doors with architrave surrounds are throughout. The stair to the rear features alternating flat and stick balusters. The stable and over-lofts retain a single surviving stall partition and plain tie-beam roof trusses without collars.

This farmhouse was the home farm to the adjacent Newbiggin Hall and, together with a range of outbuildings to the southeast, forms a group of heritage buildings.