Manor Farmhouse

Manor Farmhouse, Ganton, Potter Brompton

Farmhouse of early 18th-century date with late 18th- and early 19th-century alterations, renovated from 1996 onwards.

The building is constructed in chalk with some brick dressings, the rear wing built in chalk with outer brick cladding. The roof is pantiled with brick stacks.

The farmhouse is a two-storey building fronting onto Main Street with a lower two-storey projection extending to the rear on the left-hand side. The building faces north-east and is symmetrical with three bays, a central stair and end stacks. It is double depth with reception rooms to the front and a narrower service area to the rear, with the current kitchen extending into the two-bay rear projection that fronts to the south-east. Beyond this kitchen there is a further room within the rear projection. The rear projection has two ridgeline stacks, an end stack and a stack towards the centre. In the angle between the front range and the rear projection is a single-storey lean-to.

On the north-east elevation, there are three first-floor 4 over 8 vertical sash windows with shallow segmental arched lintels formed from brick headers. The window to the left is original and hornless. Below is a central door beneath a modern porch roof, flanked by 8 over 8 vertical sashes beneath flat lintels formed from cut and rubbed bricks.

The south-east elevation features horizontal sliding sash windows, either triples with fixed sides or doubles, each sash being 6-paned. To the right is the gable wall of the front range with a first-floor double sash above a triple sash, both to the left of the end stack and with shallow segmental arched lintels in brick. The rear projection is lower but still two-storey and continues the line of the gable wall. It has two triple sashes at first floor with their lintels close to eaves level. Below the right window is a modern porch flanked by double sash windows. Below the left window there is another triple sash. All ground-floor windows have shallow segmental arched lintels in brick. The window to the left of the porch is formed from an original entrance.

The south-west elevation shows the rear of the front range with two double horizontal sliding sash windows at first floor. The gable wall of the rear range has a modern inserted small 4-pane window either side of the chimney stack at first floor.

The north-west elevation has the gable wall of the front range with a casement window lighting the rear service room. There is evidence from a visible line and a change in the size of the chalk blocks that the roof line has been raised. There is a further casement window and door to the lean-to. The rear range has a modern inserted pair of French doors to the right.

Internally, the building retains exposed beams and joists, those in the kitchen and front rooms being of higher quality than those to the rear. The main beam in the rear room has previously been boxed and appears to be reused timber. The main beam in the kitchen is beaded, and both front rooms have beamed ceilings. The roof structure of the rear range is also exposed and features pegged, staggered purlins. On the first floor of the front range and in the ground-floor outshut there are several 18th-century plank doors, some retaining original ironmongery. The roof structure of the front range is more recent, probably early 19th-century.

The farmhouse appears on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1854. Though its footprint is difficult to discern owing to the scale of the mapping, there is clearly a rear wing as well as a front range. By 1891 it is shown as having the same dimensions as at present save for a small extension on the northern side. Internal divisions shown on the map indicate that the rear wing continued to the front of the house, while the northern end facing the road was separate. This may indicate earlier phases of the building, which is largely of early 18th-century date. From the physical evidence, the rear wing may predate the front, and the front range has been raised, probably in the early 19th century from the evidence of the surviving original window. The brick dressings on the upper windows of the front range and their symmetrical arrangement accord with an early 19th-century gentrification of the house, accompanied by the raising of the roof height to the front range. Extensive refurbishment in the 1990s replaced most of the windows and a number of internal features, although these replacements were sympathetic to the building in terms of style and materials.