Sawrey Ground and attached buildings

Sawrey Ground and attached buildings

A two-storey vernacular house, possibly built during the 1730s with later additions and alterations, together with attached barn and former stable buildings. The house is approximately L-shaped in plan and built of rubble beneath slate roofs, rendered externally throughout.

The south-facing front elevation comprises three bays with a slightly offset stone-built pitch-roofed front porch bearing a datestone of 1737. The porch contains an inset panelled timber front door flanked by horned sash windows to both floors. Chimney stacks are modern brick, now rendered.

The right return has kneelers at each end of the gable, with a single-storey lean-to containing a WC and former washhouse attached to the gable end. The rear elevation's east part contains an extension housing a former dairy beneath a catslide roof, to which a modern single-storey lean-to porch has been attached. Windows here are modern and the render to both this section of the rear elevation and the east gable end is incised. An attached rendered barn and former stable projects north from the west part of the rear elevation. The barn's east elevation has double timber doors with strap hinges providing access, whilst an adjacent former stable door has been blocked with a window inserted into its upper part. The barn's gable has kneelers to both ends.

The interior currently contains two front rooms and three rear rooms on the ground floor, with three bedrooms plus a small bedroom/storeroom on the upper floor. The front door leads into the right front room, which has a modern fire surround. The left front room, accessed through a wide basket arch, also has a modern fire surround of similar style. A blocked window in the front wall has recently been given a decorative Tudor pointed arch treatment. Each front room has a single exposed timber ceiling beam; the right room is claimed to have a lath and plaster ceiling, the left a 'rush' ceiling.

A doorway from the right front room opens into a rear hallway. From here, a timber plank doorway on the right accesses the former dairy with exposed ceiling beams, now occupied as a kitchen. On the left, the former kitchen has been subdivided: one section has recent sliding cupboards where the kitchen range stood; the other is now a modern bathroom. The hallway contains a spiral stone staircase to the upper floor with modern handrails, balusters and newel posts.

The upper floor's rear area has a modernised bedroom with a sash window and roof light. The small landing consists of a painted stone slab with ceiling beams above. From the landing, a plank doorway gives access to a small bedroom/storeroom above the former dairy. Two stone steps lead through a plank door into the right front bedroom, which in turn connects through another plank door to the left front bedroom. Fireplaces have been removed from both front bedrooms and their single ceiling beams appear plastered over and painted. Small wall apertures claimed to have formerly been spice cupboards are present in each bedroom and now have modern doors.

Access to the former stable in the barn is now via an inserted door from the ground floor rear hallway. The stable has been converted to a workshop with early fixtures and fittings removed except for a couple of ceiling beams. Doors to the farmyard and barn have been blocked.

The barn is flag and cobble floored with three bays and a former hayloft above the stable at its south end. Roof timbers are a mix of early and modern. Air vents, an owl hole and the winnowing door remain visible internally though all have been blocked.

Both the WC and former washhouse display a mix of early and modern roof timbers. The washhouse contains a blocked window in its east wall, visible only from the interior.