Kirkman Bank

Kirkman Bank is a small country house with origins as an 18th-century vernacular farmhouse, greatly enlarged by a formal Georgian extension in the late 18th or early 19th century. A further small extension was added around 1900. The building is constructed of coursed yellow limestone, more finely dressed on the Georgian and later extensions, with Welsh slate roofs.

Plan and Development

The original farmhouse faces north-west and comprises four unequal bays over two storeys with a full-sized cellar and shallow pitched gabled roof. The narrower central bay contains the main entrance, opening onto a narrow stair hall, and is flanked by wider bays, both originally heated by ridge stacks. The narrow fourth bay at the north-east end was unheated and served as a service bay with its own front door. The upper floor of this service bay is two steps down from the rest of the house and originally had a first-floor external door in the gable wall, now blocked.

The Georgian extension extends to the south-west, presenting a formal, symmetrical garden front facing south-west and an entrance front facing south-east. Its north-west elevation is set back slightly from the front of the original farmhouse. The extension connects to the original house at both ground and first floor through the southern side of the original house's south-west gable wall. This extension comprises four bays, double depth, over two storeys without cellars. The slightly off-centre entrance opens into a large entrance hall partially opened to the central stair hall. To the left (south-west), the four bays of the garden front form two equally large reception rooms, each with a fireplace in the external side walls served by end stacks.

The extension added around 1900 lies to the right (north-east) of the entrance hall. It is three-bayed but single-celled, over two storeys, with a shallow pitched hipped roof and an end stack.

Exterior

Original Farmhouse: The windows are all of differing sizes but are generally 8-over-8 unhorned sashes, with exceptions: the right-hand windows to the front (the upper window is horned; the lower is horned and 6-over-6) and the two ground floor windows to the rear (both horned). The windows in the north-east gable (both on the ground floor) are 8-by-8 horizontal sliding sashes. The lintels of the ground floor openings to the front and side are voussoired flat arches, while the remaining lintels are single-piece stones. Both doors are six-panelled externally but vertically planked internally. The low-pitched gabled roof is plain slated, and the ridge stacks are also stone.

Georgian Extension: All windows are regularly sized 6-over-6 sashes, hornless on the ground floor and with horns on the first floor. All lintels are flat arches formed from single stones. The roof is hipped with a shallow pitch, and matching end stacks create a symmetrical south-west garden front. The various soil pipes on the south-west front are later additions serving two upstairs bathrooms. The south-east entrance front has a slightly off-centre entrance with a six-panelled door and a four-pane rectangular fanlight above, set in a recessed porch provided with outer full-height panelled double doors. To the right is a ground floor window with a further window central to the right-hand bay on the first floor; the left-hand bay is blind. Similarly, the north-west elevation has a blind right-hand bay with windows restricted to the rear, left-hand bay. Central to the north-east front, partially covered by a later infill extension, is a round-headed stair window.

Circa 1900 Extension: This three-bay extension is set back slightly from the entrance front and has 6-over-6 horned sash windows on both ground and first floors with simple single-stone lintels. The low-pitched slate roof projects from the roof of the Georgian extension and ends with a hip to the north-east. There is one ridge stack (serving fireplaces in the Georgian extension) and an end stack.

Interior

Original Farmhouse: The staircase is a straight flight, closed string stair with stick balusters. Windows generally retain internal shutters, some with late 18th or early 19th-century style hinges and simple draw bars. Doors are typically four-panel and may be 19th-century replacements. Some first-floor partitions are single-thickness planked partitions with simple roll mouldings to the plank edges.

Georgian Extension: The staircase has an open well with quarter landings, an open string, stick balusters, and a ramped handrail. Windows again retain internal shutters, but these are panelled and of higher specification than those in the original farmhouse. Internal doors are also of better quality than those in the original farmhouse, being heavy four-panel doors very well painted to appear to be hardwood—this paintwork possibly being original. All principal rooms in this part of the house retain a good range of fireplaces with surrounds. The style of these fireplaces is relatively modest for the size of property. Ceiling plasterwork is also restrained with a lack of cornicing. The door architraves and panelling to the entrance and stair halls as well as the upstairs landing are probably later alterations.

Circa 1900 Extension: This was probably originally a billiard room on the ground floor with a large bedroom or nursery above. The windows of this extension were obviously designed without shutters. Ceiling plasterwork is more elaborate but still relatively restrained. Both upstairs and downstairs rooms retain contemporary fireplaces with surrounds.

Associated Features

To the north-east is a walled garden with a brick southern face and a stone northern face. This includes a large lean-to timber greenhouse which may be late 19th century in date but has replacement glazing. Between the walled garden and the original farmhouse is a range of outbuildings and a coach house or stable which has been converted for domestic occupation with inserted picture windows. Downhill and to the south-west of the house is a stone-built ha-ha.

History

The original house is thought to have been built as a farmhouse by the Collins family in the 18th century, whose principal seat was Knaresborough House in the centre of town. The family added the large extension in the late 18th or early 19th century to present a formal Georgian-style garden front facing south-west. The 1851 1:1056 Ordnance Survey town plan of Knaresborough shows this extension together with the walled garden, various outbuildings, and details of the layout of the grounds. This plan also shows that within the angle between the original house and the extension there was a conservatory and a small walled garden or courtyard complete with a tree. The first edition 1:2500 map (1891) shows some alteration within this area but still shows the conservatory. It also shows the greenhouse for the first time in the walled garden. By the next edition (1909), the conservatory had been removed and replaced with the small extension thought to have been for a billiard room. The house remained occupied by the Collins family until the death of Lady Collins around 2007.