Quadrangular Agricultural Complex at Pool Park Farm including associated Farmhouse

Quadrangular Agricultural Complex at Pool Park Farm

This is a quadrangular farm complex built in rubble stone with squared limestone dressings and some remaining limewash, finished with slate roofs displaying oversailing eaves and deep verges. The plan forms essentially a square with ranges arranged around a central courtyard, though the domestic section projects to the north-east with a parallel block flanking the main courtyard entrance. The complex consists of one-and-a-half storey entrance ranges with single-storey subsidiary ranges adjoining.

The opposing entrances take the form of cross-gabled gateways flanked by projecting piers, rising full-height with slated bargeboards and slate-hung gables. The main entrance has an outer face of timber framing with wooden latticing; its inner face contains a square boarded opening and a 20th-century wooden slatted half-gate. The opposing entrance is similar and has a barn range to its left with three tiers of ventilation slits on the outer wall and two tiers on the inner; its final bay to the left has been lost, now occupied by the end bay of a modern agricultural building. To the other side of the gateway is a bricked-up outer entrance to the left and a narrow open light under the eaves positioned diagonally above.

Linking the two entrance ranges is a single-storey byre block with a central wooden louvre and slatted vents, roofed in corrugated iron. At each corner where this block joins the entrance ranges is a segmentally-arched entrance with dressed limestone voussoirs and three-quarter boarded door; the segmental upper section of the opening functions as a vent. The byre range itself has three wide, similar entrances symmetrically placed with windows between them, these fitted with 20th-century steel-framed glazing. Opposite this range is a similar block adjoining the main entrance range (which incorporates part of the farmhouse) to the left. It contains two similar entrances and three windows; its final bay, which formerly included the third entrance, has been demolished.

The L-shaped farmhouse is of one-and-a-half storeys, rendered and whitened, with its eastern arm forming the courtyard range to the left of the main entrance. It displays large modern painted casements to the courtyard side, two of which occupy original arched openings, and two modern dormer windows to the roof, one flat and one gabled. In front of the house section stands a low modern wall with plain horizontal railings. The outward-facing side to the north-east has similar modern windows to the ground floor. The north-east wing, advanced in front of the main entrance, presents its gable end to the approach lane, featuring plain bargeboards and deep verges with cambered windows to ground and upper floors fitted with early 20th-century two- and three-part casements and projecting stone sills. A gabled porch faces the north-west (main entrance) side, with a further modern porch extruded in the outer angle between the two wings. The angle between the main courtyard gateway and the advanced house section also features a further extruded single-storey lean-to.

The advanced range opposite the farmhouse forms a south-western continuation of the courtyard complex. Its left-hand part is a cobbled area open to the front and sheltered by the block's continuous roof above. Within this is a stone stair providing access to a first-floor entrance in the gateway section; the stair has limestone steps and a contemporary plain iron handrail, with the original boarded door and simple triangular overlight-vent. Adjacent to the stair is an extruded cupboard positioned between it and the curved end wall of the main section to the right; this has a narrow panelled door and the convex curved wall adjacent contains a boarded stable entrance. To the right of this is a modern ground-floor window with a boarded loading bay above. The loading bay breaks the eaves and is contained within a small gable with deep verges. Stepped-down and partly overlapping this section is a single-storey rectangular block with boarded and vented door to the left; to the right is an unglazed window opening.

The rear gateway has an open roof structure, whilst the opposite gateway (main entrance) has a lath-and-plastered ceiling. Tall open loading bays flank the former, with pegged frames; similar bays flank the latter, though that to the left is blocked-up. Both gateways have two-bay sections to either side, with bolted king post trusses. The lower byre ranges comprise seven and five bays respectively, also with trusses of this type. The farmhouse interior was not inspected at the time of survey.