Carrington Mains Farmsteading

Carrington Mains Farmsteading

This is a Grade B listed building dating to 1813. It is a single-storey farmsteading with an irregular courtyard plan, constructed in tooled pink sandstone rubble with droved dressings. The building features relieving arches, long and short dressings, quoins, and boarded timber doors. The farmhouse to the south is listed separately.

The farmsteading comprises four distinct ranges arranged around a courtyard.

The West Range has a U-plan layout. Its eastern (courtyard) elevation is asymmetrical with six bays. It includes a gabled bay at the third bay from the right, with a door featuring a single glazed panel positioned off-centre to the right of the ground floor, and another door set in the gablehead. A flanking bay to the left contains a door, while a flanking bay to the right has an opening to a barn with a circular gatepier set in the angle of the right wall. The penultimate bay to the left has a window with a boarded panel surmounted by four glazed panels. The bay to the outer left contains a door with a four-pane fanlight, flanked to the left by a window; the left return is obscured by the adjoining farmhouse. An outer right gabled bay has a segmental-arched opening with a large sliding door.

The southern (courtyard) elevation of the West Range is asymmetrical with four bays. It features a boarded timber opening and single pane window set in the gablehead of the penultimate bay to the left. A door is flanked by two openings on the right return. Two recessed bays occupy the outer right, with a door to the left and a window to the right. An opening to a barn on the outer left has two circular gatepiers, troughs, ironwork columns, and remains of arched openings to the interior.

The western (courtyard) elevation is two-storey and comprises a former cartshed and granary with eight bays. Five bays to the right have segmental-arched openings to the ground floor; the penultimate arch to the right remains open, while the arch to the outer left is infilled with pink sandstone with a central opening; the remainder are infilled with brick. Window openings at the first floor are located above the 1st, 3rd and 5th arches. Boarded timber doors are positioned at the ground and first floors of the third bay from the left, while window openings are located at the ground and first floors of the penultimate bay to the left. A door to the ground floor is at the bay to the outer left.

The southern (courtyard) elevation of this range consists of two bays. It has a boarded opening to the centre of a gabled bay to the left, and a sliding door to a single-storey bay to the right; the right return is blank. A modern canopy joins this range to the adjacent East Range.

The northern (exterior) elevation features a raised piended roofed bay at the centre with an infilled window opening. Two long bays extend to the left and right, with a large door flanking the left bay by a small door and pipe. The bay to the right is blank.

The western (exterior) elevation comprises three gabled bays with a sliding door to the centre and a door to the right bay; the bay to the left is blank.

The eastern (exterior) elevation is obscured by a modern canopied addition.

The East Range has a rectangular plan. Its southern (courtyard) elevation contains three gabled bays with sliding doors to the centre and left bays. The bay to the right has an opening to a barn with a horizontally boarded gablehead and a circular gatepier at the right angle. Both the eastern and western elevations are blank. The northern elevation is obscured by No. 2 Main Street, listed separately.

The South-East Range has an L-plan layout. Its northern (courtyard) elevation comprises four bays with a segmental-arched gabled opening at the penultimate bay to the left, fitted with a timber two-leaf gate. Three low boarded window openings are in the flanking bay to the right, while three low openings, now infilled, are in the flanking bay to the left. A circular gatepier is positioned at the outer left angle. The outer right gabled bay contains a twelve-pane window to the centre.

The western (courtyard) elevation has three bays with doors to the centre and left bays and a large sliding door to the bay to the right; the right return is blank.

The southern (exterior) elevation comprises three bays, with the bay to the left obscured by a modern canopied addition. The centre bay has a segmental-arched gabled opening, the bay to the right has an opening with a sliding door, and a boarded timber gate is positioned at the right angle; the right return is blank.

Throughout the farmsteading, openings predominantly feature boarded timber shutters. The roofs are a mixture of red pantiled with terracotta ridges, slate with lead ridges, and corrugated iron. Stone skews are coped, gablehead stacks are coped, and cast-iron rainwater goods are installed.

The interiors were not inspected at the time of listing (1998).

The farmsteading forms a Grade B group with Carrington Village, Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 Carrington Mains Cottages, and Carrington Mains Farmhouse, all listed separately. Carrington Mains Steading is an exceptional range of intact outbuildings with very few alterations and additions. The steading was constructed as part of improvements made by the Earl of Rosebery to his farms in 1813. Carrington Village was subsequently built to serve Carrington Mains.