Marsh Grange Marsh Grange Farmhouse

Marsh Grange Farmhouse, now two separate dwellings, largely dates from the late 17th century, with an earlier 17th-century rear wing that was altered in the 19th century. The construction is cement-rendered over stone rubble, with graduated slate roofs. The building has an irregular plan, featuring a formal front of two storeys and an attic, spanning five bays, and an L-shaped rear wing of two storeys, with three windows on the first floor of its south side, and various later additions to the north.

The front elevation of Marsh Grange has a plinth and a central part-glazed door set within a bolection-moulded architrave, flanked by pilasters and a pulvinated frieze with a keystone, topped by a cornice. There are two double-chamfered cross-windows to each side of the ground floor, and five to the first floor (with bays two and four being blind). Chimneys are positioned at each end with twin, square flues on shared plinths; the right chimney has a decorative cornice. A large chimney with four diagonally-set flues rises from the rear of the ridge. The left return, belonging to Marsh Grange Farmhouse, features a part-glazed boarded door and three four-pane sash windows on each floor. A corbelled end stack on the left features slate tabling and two diagonally-set flues. The end stack on the right, where the front range meets the wing, has a massive base supporting four flues, visible from the front. A similar stack with two diagonally-set flues is present on the rear wing of Marsh Grange Farmhouse.

The interior of Marsh Grange lacks particularly notable exposed features. However, Marsh Grange Farmhouse retains many traditional features, including a former kitchen with a large blocked fireplace beneath a wooden lintel, slate flooring and benches, and a large slate table in the pantry. The present kitchen features a bressumer beam. A spiral staircase is located near two blocked wooden-mullioned windows, now positioned beneath an outshut roofline. Significant original fabric remains on the first floor, including plank and muntin room divisions.

The site has a long history, initially developed as a monastic grange by Furness Abbey. Following the Dissolution, it belonged to Sir Hugh Askew. It is notable as the birthplace of Margaret Askew, who married Judge Thomas Fell of Swarthmoor in 1632, and as the location of a visit by George Fox, founder of the Quaker movement, in 1669. Marsh Grange Farmhouse was additionally listed on 6th May 1976.