Fort Putnam Farmhouse, Barns, Byres, Cow House, Wall And Gateway

NY 43 SE DACRE GREYSTOKE

13/57 Fort Putnam: farmhouse, barns, 27.12.67 byres, cow house, wall and gateway

II*

Folly farmhouse and outbuildings built to resemble a fort. Late C18 for the 11th Duke of Norfolk, commemorating the success of the American War of Independence. Early C19 extensions, and alterations dated and inscribed H.C.H. 1892 (Henry Charles Howard). Red sandstone ashlar walls, partly rendered, with string courses, battlemented parapet and V-jointed quoins, on chamfered plinth. Lean-to graduated greenslate roofs, with large banded red sandstone chimney stacks. 2-storey, 3-bay farmhouse with flanking lower stables/barn and adjoining single-storey, 5-bay cow house, built along one side of farmyard; the other 2 sides enclosed by L-shaped barn/byres joined to the farmhouse range by an archway; the whole outer wall takes the form of a continuous battlemented curtain wall, making a rough overall U-shape. Outer farmhouse wall is higher and polygonal, each angled wall with a tall blind pointed arch. Within 2 of the centre arches are C20 windows on 2 levels, all in C19 stone surrounds; a further left arch has a round vent. The right arch is covered by the early C19 cow house which is divided into 5 bays by tall semicircular piers, ringed at the top by coronets of stiff stone petals, from which rise cones with balls on top, like chessmen. Between the piers are round-headed recesses, each with a blocked round vent. Around the left corner of the farmhouse is a tall pointed-arched gateway giving access to the farmyard. Early C19 curtain wall extension to left forms one wall of the C19 barn/byre range from which rises a square central turret. The inner walls of the courtyard are not as impressive as the exterior; the farmhouse has late C19 doorways and windows, dated and inscribed on a wall panel. The inner wall of the cow house is simply square piers supporting a sloping roof. Barn/byre range has 3 segmental arches under pointed-arched loft doorways; the right-angled barn has 2 pointed cart entrances on both sides and slit vents on 2 levels. In its original form this resembled Bunkers Hill nearby, but with its extensions it is now the most impressive of a group of farmhouse follies in the Greystoke area. See Barbara Jones, Follies & Grottoes, 1974, pp.303-4; Country Life, 30 June 1983, pp.1796-1800.

Listing NGR: NY4519730940