Red House Farmhouse

Red House Farmhouse, Maynby

A farmhouse of early 18th-century date, though architectural and internal evidence suggests it may possibly date to the late 17th century. The building is constructed of brick in Flemish bond beneath a modern tile roof, with brick stacks and modern external joinery.

The plan follows a lobby entry arrangement between the eastern two bays, with stairs to the rear centre. The central and eastern bays both contain smoke bays to the east, while the westernmost bay was originally unheated. Both gables are extended by single-storey lean-to additions.

The front elevation presents two storeys arranged in four regularly spaced bays. The window above the entrance is blind. All openings are set with flat arches in gauged brick. At the time of survey, the windows were modern 2-over-2 sashes with exposed sash boxes. The front door is a modern boarded door in a timber surround. A simple two-course storey band runs across the elevation. The gables are raised with brick coping and brick kneelers. Three ridge stacks are present: those in line with the entrance and at the east gable are square in section, while the west gable stack is rectangular and probably dates to the late 19th century, serving a corner-positioned ground-floor fireplace.

The lean-to extensions to both gables are built in English garden wall bond and stretcher bond, with later alterations. The original house attic features a storey band, two blocked attic windows, and two tie rod plates to each gable. The rear elevation shows irregular fenestration with some altered openings, including a stair window towards the centre.

Internally, exposed ceiling beams appear on both ground and first floors. Some are flat chamfered with step and run-out stops; others are unchamfered. The east gable smoke bay has a bressumer beam chamfered on both inner and outer edges. The central smoke bay contains an unchamfered bressumer with an inglenook housing a 20th-century fireplace that incorporates a sandstone fireplace with moulded corbels, possibly of early 18th-century date. The eastern principal bay has been knocked through from front to back. The stairs are a modern replacement in an enlarged stairwell, occupying the position of the original stairs, which were probably doglegged. Smokehoods survive on the first floor to both smoke bays.

The roof structure is traditionally jointed and pegged in squared hardwood timber. It incorporates A-frame trusses clasping a diamond-set ridge purlin, with two sets of side purlins tenoned into the principal rafters.

Associated farm buildings are generally of late 19th-century date with modern alterations. One barn includes a traditionally jointed roof structure with kingblocks.

The farm was likely established following the enclosure of the township's open fields. No enclosure plan exists for Maunby or Kirby Wiske, suggesting enclosure by agreement before 1750 rather than by Act of Parliament. Red House, with associated buildings to the north, appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857. The 1895 edition shows westward expansion of the farm complex and alterations to the layout of rear farm buildings.

The house is designated for its character as a vernacular farmhouse built shortly before the Agricultural Revolution, presenting an architecturally polite exterior to a vernacular internal plan form, and for retaining features of interest including the smoke bays and traditionally constructed roof structure, notwithstanding extensive modernisation and renovation.