Low Cleaves

Low Cleaves is a farmhouse dating from the mid-18th century, with additions and alterations made around 1800. It is constructed of red and pink brick in an English garden wall bond, with coursed squared stone to the rear and left return. The roof is tiled with pantiles. The farmhouse is two storeys high and has a 1:2 bay arrangement, with the left bay being a taller addition. The two original right-hand bays have a doorway with steps up to it, featuring an upper, round-arched, glazed panel with Gothic glazing bars and a wooden surround incorporating fluted pilasters and an entablature. To the right of the door is a 16-pane sash window with glazing bars and 2-panel shutters, beneath a stone lintel. The first floor has two 12-pane side-sliding sash windows with stone cills; stepped and dentilled eaves run along the top. A rebuilt brick stack is located at the right end. The left-hand bay has a large 16-pane sash window which has a flush wood architrave and panelled shutters. Above this sash is another window with glazing bars and a stone cill and stepped, dentilled eaves. Renewed brick end stacks are present. At the rear, herringbone-tooled quoins are visible at the right end. The right-hand bay has a small side-sliding sash window on the ground floor, and a similar, larger, 12-pane window above. Further windows are present on the first floor, flanking a tall, round-arched stair window with a sash window containing glazing bars, positioned centrally in the left-hand bays. A further ground floor window is located to the left, under a 20th-century tripartite lintel with a lean-to porch to its right. A later brick stack is situated at the left corner. Inside, a dog-leg open-string staircase features a ramped handrail, plain balusters and gun-barrel type newel posts. One room on the left has two good 6-panel doors with architraves, a wall cupboard, a decorative frieze and a moulded dentilled cornice. The room on the right has a cast-iron grate with a moulded edge to the fireplace surround. Deeds indicate a building was present on the site as early as 1643, and there is evidence of a former brick-walled building to the right of the farmhouse.