C18 Farmhouse and Barn at Julian Bower Farm

Julian Bower Farm is a farmhouse with attached agricultural building, both dating from the 18th century or earlier.

The farmhouse is constructed of local sandstone, rendered, with a graduated Welsh slate roof. It follows a continuous outshut plan with an attached barn and hayloft. The main structure comprises two storeys arranged in three bays beneath pitched roofs. A left gable chimneystack is present, and large, prominent quoins mark all corners.

The south elevation bows slightly and features an off-centre entrance with a four-panel door. To the left is a three-light mullioned window and to the right a former two-light mullioned window. The first floor has three regularly spaced two-light mullioned windows, one with a missing mullion. All windows are set within flush painted ashlar stone surrounds and are boarded over. The rear elevation is a continuous two-storey outshut, prominently quoined, with a large off-centre original opening marked by long and short quoins. To its left is a rectangular stair window (lower part blocked) indicating the staircase position, beneath which evidence of a blocked entrance remains. Rectangular windows occupy the ends of the elevation at each floor level; the ground floor left window is fitted with a uPVC frame.

The attached agricultural building to the west gable is two storeys high beneath a shallower pitched roof of stone slates, forming a former byre with hay loft above. Its south elevation has a pair of small two-light timber mullioned windows just beneath the eaves and a ground-floor rectangular opening beneath a timber lintel. The left return features a first-floor door reached by stone steps, beneath which is a wide vehicular opening created by widening an original quoined opening. The rear elevation has a secondary lean-to outshut with a clear butt joint in the stonework, entered through a formerly wider entrance with a timber lintel. Within this outshut, a second pair of timber mullioned windows are visible just below the eaves of the original north wall, indicating that the outshut is a later addition.

The farmhouse interior is entered through the main entrance into a cross passage that terminates at a crude opening in the original rear wall, now giving access to the rear outshut and stair. A six-panel door opens into the firehouse on the left, which contains the original full-length inglenook. The firehouse has a stone slab floor, crudely plastered walls, and three chamfered ceiling beams. The former inglenook features a substantial fire beam with meat hooks that carried a fire hood, and a red sandstone chimneypiece of 18th-century date. This is fitted with a 19th-century cast-iron range complete with a pot crane and chains and hooks for suspending cooking implements. Alcoves to either side retain 18th-century spice cupboards with single doors. A probable blocked fire window on the original external north wall has been converted into a third spice cupboard retaining its 18th-century moulded timber frame, implying that the outshut is secondary.

Opening off the right side of the cross passage is an originally unheated parlour retaining a 19th-century timber chimneypiece fitted with an Edwardian tiled cast-iron grate. To the right is a large 18th-century corniced spice cupboard with panelled doors. The window opening retains a sliding sash frame with fine glazing bars.

The rear of the house comprises a continuous outshut with a central full-height stone-built stair hall flanked by narrow service rooms. The left room contains a brick-built set-pot and a substantial red sandstone 18th-century chimneypiece. The right room has been converted by internal blockwork into a utility/cloakroom. The stair hall contains a stone dog-leg stair with stick balusters and newel posts with flat caps. The stair rises to the first floor, formerly lit by a now blocked stair window. Rooms open off a small landing with doors and architraves of three-panelled 18th-century Westmorland form with contemporary door furniture. Two rooms have stone chimneypieces of probable 18th-century date. Where visible, the outshut lean-to roof structure comprises a mixture of original historic timbers and sawn replacements. The roof structure above the main body of the house, visible partially through a loft hatch, is formed of waney triangular trusses with some replacement timbers.

The interior of the former byre and hayloft has an undercroft of historic waney roof supports with replaced rafters. The blocked window on the south wall is visible internally with a waney timber lintel. The original triangular roof truss with double purlins and ridge piece remains. The building's original rear north wall has a pair of mullioned windows beneath the eaves identical to those on the visible south elevation. The added northern compartment is a small plain space with a half triangular truss roof structure and replaced purlins.