Home Farm, Springwood House

Home Farm, Springwood House

This is an improved courtyard farmsteading dating to around 1850, with picturesque alterations and additions made by the architects Brown and Wardrop in 1870 and 1871. The E and N ranges survive in good condition, while the S and W ranges have been substantially altered.

The E (entrance) range features a 3-bay single-storey centrepiece with a central tower, designed by Brown and Wardrop in 1870. A central segmental-arched pend sits below the tower, flanked on the north and south by flat-roofed single-storey wings (possibly stores) with segmental-arched openings and vertically boarded doors, though the left arch may have been altered. The walls are rendered brick with red sandstone dressings. Decorative brick pepperpot turrets, corbelled at the angles, are topped with polychrome fishscale-slated caps. The 2-storey tower features a crowstep-gabled design with a steeply-pitched roof decorated with clay tiles in alternate horizontal bandings, small cast-iron finials, and pierced decorative ridge tiles. The pend arch displays mannered rustic keystones, while inscribed red sandstone panels sit above the pend arch on the E and W elevations. At the E elevation, a corbelled bracketed niche appears in the gable apex above, and trefoil and quatrefoil stone roundels sit above at the W (courtyard) elevation. Small single-storey outshots occupy the rear re-entrant angles, and concrete additions have been added to the NE courtyard angle. A single-storey range to the south of this range has been much altered and is of little interest.

At the NE angle stands a house designed by Brown and Wardrop in 1871. Its asymmetrical E elevation features a timber-bracketed and gabletted porch within a gabled bay to the right, with overhanging bracketed eaves. The left side has a window with modern glazing, while the right side has a bipartite window. The N elevation shows a single window to the left and a tripartite window to the right, below a timber-bracketed dormer window.

The N range comprises a 2-storey, 3-bay bothy at its centre, built of rubble with recent repointing at the front and rendering on the rear courtyard elevation. A timber-bracketed porch with a sloped roof (decorated with the same tiles as the main roof) sits to the left of the door. The roof is steeply pitched with alternate bandings of decorative and plain clay tiles, pierced tile cresting, and 3 ridge stacks in English brick—a triple stack at the centre and paired stacks at the ends. The ground floor has 2 windows and the first floor has 3 close-set windows with small-paned sash and case glazing. 1950s dormer window additions have been added at the rear.

To the NW stands a single-storey L-plan dairy with an asymmetrical N elevation featuring a single window to the left, a bipartite window at the centre, and a timber-boarded bracketed gable to the right. The walls are repointed rubble beneath a slate roof with pierced ridge tiles. The N and W elevations are both fitted with diminutive bracketed and louvred dormer windows, with timber cusped detailing in the dormer gablettes; louvres on the N face north, while those on the W face both north and south. The W dormers retain original hopper glazing. A raised ridge vent sits at the W bays. The courtyard elevation has 4 blocked windows and a boarded door. The dairy interior contains segmental-arched recesses at the E wall, with patterned glazed tiles on the wall to shoulder height and on the flagged floor, now damaged. Openings on the W elevation have been altered.

The W range has been much altered beyond the dairy. A single-storey barn next to the dairy has modern asbestos sheeting over a timber-beamed roof, which originally contained a horse mill. A single-storey altered block sits at the SW angle. The cartshed at the S range has had its asbestos roofing replaced and features a symmetrical 5-bay courtyard elevation with 5 segmental cart arches, of which 3 to the left have been infilled. A central gabled hayloft at first floor is flanked by 4 hayloft openings at eaves level. The cart arches display mannered rustic keystones and the structure contains timber beamed construction.