Colt House Grange Farm And Attached Outbuildings

Colthouse Grange Farm and Attached Outbuildings

Colthouse Grange Farm is a farmhouse with attached agricultural outbuildings, located on the west side of Stonebeck Down, Ramsgill Road. The house originates from the 17th century but was extensively rebuilt in the early 19th century for the Yorke Estate of Bewerley Hall. It is constructed of coursed squared stone with a graduated stone slate roof.

The main house is a double-fronted, double-depth building with a central entrance opening onto a straight stair. Evidence suggests the building was once subdivided into two back-to-back cottages, with a second staircase rising from the back door. To the rear, across a small courtyard, is a two-storey former agricultural building, with a barn to the west and a pig sty with chicken housing above to the east.

The front elevation is symmetrical, presenting three bays over two storeys with regular stonework indicating a single build phase. The central entrance is framed by a quoined surround with a plain stone lintel and narrow drip course. The original door was six-panelled but is now boarded. Windows are eight-over-eight sashes in plain stone surrounds with slightly projecting cills, and ground floor windows have narrow drip courses. Two first-floor windows are hornless and date to the 19th century, while the others are horned and may be 20th-century replacements. Raised, stone-coped gables have shaped kneelers, and stone-built twin-flued end stacks are present.

The east gable displays rougher stonework, indicating the building was originally single-storied. A two-light mullioned window, inset and chamfered, appears on the ground floor to the rear and dates to the early or mid-17th century. A blocked single-light window with chamfered surround, also probably 17th century, is positioned at the height of the current first floor and may have originally lit the attic space before the building was heightened. The ground floor front window is a 20th-century insert with a small-paned casement.

The rear elevation shows stonework of several phases. A central door with chamfered surround and lintel features a shallow triangular head; this doorway dates to the early or mid-17th century and is hung with blacksmith-made strap hinges. To the right is a ten-over-ten hornless sash in a plain surround, with evidence the opening has been heightened. Two first-floor windows are four-over-eight sashes in plain surrounds. Gables retain shaped kneelers.

The west gable appears to be a single build with three ground-floor windows that are 20th-century insertions.

Interior doors throughout are plank doors of random-width planks hung with 19th-century pattern strap hinges, now mass-produced. Architraving is consistent throughout and is likely a 20th-century refurbishment. The right front room has a boxed-in floor beam and a late 19th-century cast iron fireplace in a simple stone surround with a modern reproduction stone mantelpiece. The left front room has exposed floor joists supported by a boxed-in rough-hewn beam; the joists and floorboards are likely 20th-century replacements. A large, simple fireplace, probably originally for a range cooker, is present. The left rear room has sawn pine floor joists, roughly chamfered and possibly 19th century, with evidence for a second staircase position at the back door. The right rear room has exposed hewn hardwood joists, several retaining meat hooks. The staircase appears to be a modern replacement, likely in its 19th-century position. The first floor lacks fireplaces. The front left bedroom includes a walk-in cupboard above the front door with an internal multi-paned window lighting the stairs. The roof structure includes at least one, probably two, bolted king post trusses.

The attached outbuilding is connected to the rear of the house by a tall yard wall and is built of finely jointed, almost ashlar stonework. Originally an agricultural building, it has been converted to domestic use but retains ventilation openings (now glazed), a pair of pig feeding troughs, and a flight of external stone steps. The building comprises two parts: a two-storey barn with a pitched roof containing bolted king post trusses, and a pig sty with chicken housing above under a single pitched roof.

The two chamfered windows and rear door confirm the house's early to mid-17th-century origin, with the gable form suggesting it was originally single-storied with a steeply pitched roof. The front elevation was extensively rebuilt in the early 19th century as part of a farmstead marked on Ordnance Survey maps as Colt House, likely part of the Yorke family estate of Bewerley Hall. The rear outbuilding appears slightly later but is probably the building shown on the 1853 Ordnance Survey map. Just over twenty metres to the south stands another farmhouse with a similar early 19th-century frontage, known as Colthouse, which was probably the principal farmhouse of the complex but has since been altered and extended.