Warsetter Steading, Sanday

Warsetter Steading, Sanday

Possibly dating from the 18th century with later alterations and additions, this is an early 19th-century farmstead comprising a 2-storey, 3-bay symmetrical T-plan farmhouse with a pitched-roofed entrance porch to the principal south elevation and a single-storey gabled projection to the rear, together with a single-storey ancillary farm courtyard with entrance to the south-west. The courtyard comprises byre ranges arranged around a rectangular yard, with a 1½-storey barn and store terminating the south range and a 2-storey threshing barn disposed at right angles terminating the west range.

The farmhouse is harled, while the ancillary courtyard is built of roughly coursed drystone rubble.

On the south principal elevation, a window sits within the gabled porch at ground level in the central bay, with a boarded door in the right return and a first-floor window above. Windows are present at both ground and first-floor levels in the remaining bays. The north rear elevation features a blank gabled elevation to the central projection with a gablehead stack above, while the lean-to projection to the internal angle on the left is lit by two windows with an additional first-floor window above and a ground-floor window in the outer left bay. A timber-panelled door enters the lean-to projection at the internal angle to the right. The west side elevation has a window set to the left at each floor with a gablehead stack above. The east side elevation contains a window set to the left at first-floor level only, with a gablehead stack above.

Roof and finishes include grey slate with purple slate to the north projection, stone ridge, harled and corniced gablehead stacks (though the stack to the north projection has no cornice), and uPVC rainwater goods. Windows are uPVC with top-hung upper lights. The interior was not seen at the time of survey in 1998.

Surrounding the house to the south-west is a rectangular-plan garden enclosed by a drystone wall with flagstone cope. The taller west boundary incorporates a centred boarded door. Square-plan rubble gatepiers with stone ball caps stand adjacent to the house and to the east.

The farm courtyard comprises four ranges. The north range presents a 10-bay south courtyard elevation regularly fenestrated with boarded doors in bays 1, 3, 6 and 8. The east range has a 5-bay west courtyard elevation (formerly 6-bay) grouped 3-3, with a blocked central door flanked by windows in the left group and a boarded door with flanking windows in each bay of the right group. Its west elevation is irregular with 5 bays containing boarded doors in bays 1, 3 and 4 and windows elsewhere. The south range's north courtyard elevation is largely blank in its single-storey section to the left, with a central boarded door and small flanking window serving the 1½-storey barn to the right. A forestair accesses a boarded door to the outer right. The gabled barn's west elevation has a blocked window at ground level and a boarded door above. The west range's east courtyard elevation comprises 3 bays with boarded doors in each bay to the single-storey block to the right, while the gabled threshing barn to the left has a boarded door at first-floor level. The threshing barn's south entrance elevation displays 6 bays with a 2-bay single-storey addition set back to the outer left and a single bay of the main block similarly set back. Windows at ground level appear in bays 1, 3 and 6, with variously sized boarded doors at ground and first-floor levels throughout.

The courtyard buildings feature timber-framed windows and small rooflights to various pitches. Roofing includes a wide range of materials: traditional graded stone-tiled roofs with some purple slate replacements, stone ridges, terracotta ridge ventilators along the north and south ridges, and cast-iron and uPVC rainwater goods. The interiors were not seen at the time of survey in 1998.