Details
546/0/10016 ELDWICK BECK
28-APR-06 1-5
II
House, formerly 3 cottages, c.1650, C20 alterations, in dressed, partly coursed stone under a stone slate roof with one surviving ridge stack, stone dressings and some quoins.
PLAN:Each is a single cell, two storey unit, under a single roof, now joined and with some internal sub-divisions.
EXTERIORS:front (south) elevation has, from left to right, 4-light window with 1 stone mullion (probably 3 originally), 2 doors, 4-light stone mullioned window, door and 3-light stone mullioned window. First floor from left to right has 4-light window, single light window above middle door, and 2 4-light stone mullioned windows. All the mullions are flat-faced, and the door surrounds are single narrow stones. There is a suggestion of quoining between the (right hand) end and middle cottage. At the left end, where the cottages are attached to a later building, there are the remains of a former chimney stack against the gable end wall of the adjoining building which encroaches over the cottage at roof level.
Rear (north) elevation is cut into the rising ground at its right end. There is a variety of windows irregularly spread across ground and first floor, none with stone mullions but all with wooden casements. Heavy quoins at the junction of the end and middle cottage, and on the corner of end cottage. Indications of a first floor opening, possibly a doorway, in the stonework of right hand cottage.
Gable end has a small first floor single light, and one 3-light stone mullioned window at ground floor. To the right is a C21 door and window, with stone infill, replacing C20 garage entrance.
INTERIOR:end cell ground floor is divided into 2 rooms, with external doors to each room, and connecting door to next room. The window to the gable end is mullioned but not original. Middle cell is undivided at ground floor, and has a single chamfered spine beam. A fireplace is set against the wall to the end cell, with stone slab surround and a vertical chimney breast with no mantel, with a wooden beam set above the fire surround. A wooden dog-leg staircase to the rear with small stair window, and lobby to front door which also interconnects to next cell. Left-hand cell subdivided: larger room to front with large spine beam with mortises for former joists and irregular chamfer. Fireplace against back wall similar to the other, but not functional. Small room to rear with stone stair to half landing occupied by a toilet with a small window to the rear. Various fragments of timber in walls of both rooms, including double lintel beams above original window to front. First floor has single staircase leading to 3 bedrooms and bathroom; further bedroom and en-suite reached through middle room. Front end bedroom has non-functioning fireplace on gable end wall, and left end bedroom has the same. Closets in each end cell correspond in shape and size to stair space in middle cell. Other timber fragments in walls, and double lintel beams in front windows. Roof space is divided into 3; no trusses, but 2 purlins to each side and common rafters throughout. Rafters all C20, and lining between rafters and slates. End cell has C20 purlins, middle and left end cells have a mix of C20 and C17/18 purlins. End and middle cells have C20 steel ties between the upper purlins to prevent spread, and the middle and left end cells have struts at intervals.
HISTORY:the cottages are first mentioned in Bingley Parish Book 1653-1694, following the Poor Law Act of 1601 and local Quarter Sessions enactments of 1638, which required parishes to provide for their poor. The cottages were built for the deserving poor of the parish, at rents variable depending on their indigency. They remained in the ownership of Bingley Township until at least 1865. A map of 1817 shows them as Eldwick Beck cottages, in a survey and valuation of the Township and Parish of Bingley for the Relief of the Poor, ordered by Justices at Wakefield Quarter Sessions. A further valuation in 1865 lists them (plots 336, 337 and 338) as township property. A plan of the locality of 1908 also shows the three cottages. The date of their sale and subsequent conversion to a single property is unknown, but extensive works were carried out in the 1980s, including the insertion of the roof ties to counter spread, and other consolidation work. The windows on the north side of the building all appear to postdate an early photograph which shows two small sash windows at first floor, with a possible mullioned window near the outer end. The ground floor is obscured by the rise in ground level.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Eldwick Beck, which runs through the grounds of the property to the east, shows evidence in stone-built channels and leats of its former use as a mill stream, feeding the spinning mill that stood to the south and operated for most of the C19.
SOURCES:
- Allan Mirfield, 'Eldwick A Village Oft Removed', 2003
- E.E. Dodd, 'Bingley', 1958
SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: 1-5 Eldwick Beck is a group of three cottages, now converted to a single dwelling, with documentary evidence of their existence from the middle of the seventeenth century. They were built as almshouses and remained in parish ownership until at least the late nineteenth century.
As buildings dating to before 1700, there is a strong presumption in favour of listing, as long as they contain a significant proportion of their original fabric. These cottages retain clear evidence of their history as three separate dwellings, as well as original features such as fireplaces and mullioned windows.
They have inevitably undergone alterations in the course of their history, but their original plan form can be traced, and their fabric, including stone slate roof, is largely intact.
As a vernacular building group in local traditional style, they meet the criteria for listing in a national context.
