Summary
Small model farm, 1860s/70s, for Edward Salt's Ferniehurst estate. Coursed sandstone with ashlar dressings, slate roofs laid in diminishing courses. Mainly single-storey
Reasons for Designation
Ferniehurst Farm is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: it is a good example of a small-scale model farm that reflects the aspirations of its owner with a strong level of architectural and decorative detailing providing an aesthetic element to functional structures;
* Degree of survival: it is an important survival of a complete mid-Victorian farmstead that retains many original features;
* Historic interest: built by Edward Salt, Ferniehurst Farm is an important physical link to the domestic life of the Salt family that complements their business and philanthropic life illustrated by the World Heritage Site of Saltaire;
* Urbanisation: it is an important survival of an intact group of farm buildings in an increasingly urbanised area that illustrate the area's pre-urban past.
History
Ferniehurst Farm is believed to have been constructed in the 1860s/70s. It was constructed for Edward Salt Esq (1837-1903), son of Sir Titus Salt (1803-1876), as a model home farm for his Ferniehurst estate. The mansion of Ferniehurst was constructed in the early-1860s following Edward Salt's marriage to Mary Jane Susan Elgood. The land belonged to Edward's father, the industrialist and philanthropist, Titus Salt who built the nearby vast Salt's Mill (the largest and most modern mill in Europe in the mid-C19) and the model village of Saltaire for his workers from 1850-1876 (now a World Heritage Site). In addition to the main house and farm, the estate also comprised stabling and carriage houses, laundry, outbuildings, glasshouses, servants' cottages, a lodge, and extensive gardens and pleasure grounds. The farm was provided with modern conveniences, including gas lighting.
Edward was Titus Salt's third son, and like several of his brothers he worked in the family firm, which was founded on the weaving of alpaca wool into luxurious cloth. Ferniehurst was the first Salt residence to be built in the immediate environs of Saltaire on the north side of the Aire valley, and was followed in 1869 by the construction of Edward's younger brother, Titus Salt Jr's house and estate known as Milner Field (now demolished) further to the west. Sir Titus Salt also originally intended to construct a mansion on a neighbouring site known as The Knoll, but he sold the land to Charles Stead, the first non-Salt director of the firm who constructed a house and gardens (also now demolished).
Following restructuring and the deaths of both Sir Titus and Titus Jr, by 1890 Edward Salt was the only family member with a seat on the board, and in 1892, due to changing tastes in fashion, the development of new materials, and the United States McKinley trade tariffs, the firm of Sir Titus Salt Bart. Sons and Co. Ltd went into liquidation. Edward Salt, who had used the Ferniehurst estate as collateral, was declared bankrupt and the Bradford Banking Company foreclosed on his mortgage, forcing him to leave the estate. The estate, including Ferniehurst Farm, was subsequently put up for auction.
In the 1892 auction particulars the farm was recorded as comprising a farmhouse, standing room for thirty cattle, piggeries, stable, bacon-curing room, tiled dairy, straw yard and shed, poultry and pigeon houses, and cart and open sheds. The estate did not reach its asking price and was withdrawn from sale. It was later bought by George Camille Waud, a Bradford textile manufacturer who constructed a hackney stud farm on part of the estate to the north of Ferniehurst Farm. In the 1920s Waud began selling off the estate's land and in the 1930s the estate was sold to a quarrying company who demolished the main house. The estate was subsequently acquired by Baildon Council in the 1940s who turned the site of the former house and its grounds into a recreation area. Ferniehurst First School was constructed to the north of Ferniehurst Farm in the 1950s and demolished in 2001. Much of the agricultural land surrounding the farm has since been built upon and all the remaining estate buildings have been demolished.
Details
Small model farm, 1860s/70s, for Edward Salt's Ferniehurst estate. Coursed sandstone with ashlar dressings, slate roofs laid in diminishing courses. Mainly single-storey
PLAN: the farm has an L-shaped plan and is laid at an angle with the longest range aligned north-east - south-west and a return range attached to the south-west end, which is aligned north-west - south-east and includes the farmhouse. A detached pig/cattle pen (now covered) and a piggery lie in the centre of a yard to the east, which is partly laid with stone setts. A detached former open shed (now used as a cow byre) is located to the west of the main farm buildings.
EXTERIOR: original timber fixed-pane, casement and ventilator windows survive to the farm buildings, but the farmhouse has lost its original sashes, which have been replaced by uPVC casements* (the uPVC windows are not of special interest).
NORTH-EAST - SOUTH-WEST RANGE: forming a prominent feature of this range's yard (south-east facing) elevation due to its height is a 2 1/2 -storey single-bay feedhouse that projects forward slightly into the yard underneath a gable. A doorway exists to the centre of the ground floor with a taking-in door to the first floor, and a gableted pigeon loft entrance (partially blocked up) above with shaped bargeboards. A short chimneystack rises from the north-east side of the roof. The feedhouse is flanked by two single-storey mistles accessed through split stable-style doors; that to the right leads first into a former stable that connects through to the mistle. The mistle to the left (south-west end) occupies the junction of the two ranges and has windows on the rear elevation. The right (north-east) mistle is believed to have been a cart shed or store originally and the front (south-east) yard-facing wall appears to have originally been an open entrance, but is now infilled and has two 12-pane ventilator windows. The stonework of the infilled opening and the style of the windows suggests that it was infilled early on, probably in the late-C19. The north-eastern half of the range is formed of three stables and a cart shed (now used as a garage/workshop), which is accessed through a large opening with timber double doors. The stables have split doors and large windows with ventilator casements. The north-east gable end has an unglazed trefoil window with a dressed surround set to the gable apex.
On the range's rear (north-west) elevation a few slates have been removed and very small skylights created. The north-eastern end of this elevation does not incorporate any windows. A 4-pane window lights one of the stables and to the right are three small pointed-arched windows with hoodmoulds set low down near the base of the wall (lighting the former cart shed/store, now a mistle) with a multipaned half-dormer window above, also with a hoodmould. The roof's ridge line above the mistle has partially sunk/collapsed. To the right is a tall window with replaced glazing lighting the former stable that leads through into the north-eastern mistle. The 2 1/2 storey feedhouse does not project forward on this side. It has a large cross window to the ground floor incorporating leaded and stained glass to the upper lights, a slightly smaller window above with a timber boarded cover, and a multipaned pointed-arched window to the pigeon loft with a hoodmould above. The 2-bay mistle to the right (south-west end) has large windows with replaced glazing. The south-west gable end has a blocked-up window to the gable apex with a pointed-arched head. A doorway to the ground-floor right, which accesses the mistle has a ledged and braced door and an overlight above. A mid-late C20 sandstone, timber and corrugated-metal hay barn*, which is attached to part of the south-west gable end, is excluded from the listing.
NORTH-WEST - SOUTH-EAST RANGE: the yard (north-east) elevation of this range incorporates a store at the north-west end, which is open on the north-east side facing into the yard. To the left of the store the range's eaves line is lower and projects beyond the wall face forming a verandah; the verandah is supported by replaced timber piers. Adjacent to the store is a 4-panel door with an overlight and a large 6-pane window that provide access and light into a room that was possibly a bacon curing room originally. A mirror-image doorway and window to the left originally led into the dairy, but the doorway has been blocked up, the window replaced in uPVC and the dairy subsumed internally into the farmhouse. A simple ventilator exists to the ridge . The farmhouse occupies the south-eastern end of the range and has a small late-C20 gabled and enclosed porch* (not of special interest) added onto the verandah. The original 4-panel main entrance door survives within the porch, which is flanked by two windows. All the farmhouse's original sash windows have been removed and replaced by uPVC windows*, which are not of special interest. Two ridge stacks denote the original extent of the farmhouse before the dairy was subsumed.
The range's rear (south-west) elevation has two windows of differing size lighting a small room at the rear of the open store and the adjacent bacon-curing room respectively. The window of the former dairy to the right has replaced uPVC glazing as it now forms part of the farmhouse. The stumps of wrought-iron bars are visible on the window sills of the dairy and bacon-curing room. These are believed to have been installed during the Second World War to prevent black market theft, as pigs were killed on the site, and were removed after the war. The farmhouse projects slightly to the rear underneath a catslide roof with two small windows to the south-west wall and a further window to the north-west return. The south-east gable end has an overhanging eaves, a window to the left of centre and a doorway to the far left with a late-C20 enclosed porch* (the porch is not of special interest) attached in front.
YARD STRUCTURES: to the east of the main farm buildings and set within the yard is an outdoor pig/cattle pen (used as a midden in the early-mid C20) with low sandstone walls to three sides with canted and quoined corners, and carved ashlar copings with chamfered edges. The walls are surmounted by a low cast-iron balustrade with thick shaped balusters. A panelled cast-iron drinking trough is built into the north-west side of the wall. The pen probably had a gate at the south-west end originally, which has since been removed. A small central section of the north-east end wall and the balustrade above have been removed (presumably to create an additional entrance at some point), and then infilled again. A c1970s breezeblock sub-structure*, which is not of special interest, has also been added on top of the walls to create an enclosed cattle shed with a pitched corrugated-metal roof. A long single-storey former piggery with a catslide roof and a short central ridge stack forms the south-east side of the pen. The piggery's north-east gable end has stonework laid in diminishing courses and two large openings with timber lintels; the opening to the left has a shouldered head, whilst that to the right is a later insertion. A triangular-shaped ventilator exists to the gable apex. The piggery's south-east wall projects outwards slightly underneath a catslide roof and retains doorways and windows towards the south-western end, accessing stores and an outside toilet. A mid-C20 open-sided lean-to structure*, which is not of special interest, is attached to the piggery's south-east eaves. The piggery's south-west gable end has a wide doorway containing a plank and batten door. The north-west wall is visible from within the covered pig/cattle pen and incorporates two wide doorways with shouldered heads separated by boarded-over windows and blocked-up openings set low to the ground, which would have provided the pigs with access into the pen. The doorway towards the north-eastern end has been blocked up (the stonework suggests that this was done early on, probably in the late-C19) whilst that towards the south-western end retains a plank and batten door.
FORMER OPEN SHED: located to the west of the main farm buildings is a former open shed with quoining to the corners that is now used as a cow byre/shed. The shed was originally open on the south-east side and supported by a central cast-iron column, which still survives. The lower sections of the two openings have been infilled and the upper sections covered with corrugated-metal cladding. A mid-C20 opening has been inserted to the north-east gable end; the original narrow ventilator slot survives above. The main part of the shed retains its original slate roof coverings, but a short kick-back section at the western end of the building, which provides direct access into the fields, has a replaced corrugated-metal roof covering.
INTERIOR: the farm buildings have brick internal walls (some whitewashed) and retain their original roof structures. The remains of gas light fittings and pipes also exist to some of the buildings.
NORTH-EAST - SOUTH-WEST RANGE: the stables in this range have rubbed-brick edges to the door jambs that would have prevented the animals from being grazed as they entered and left the stables. The original stall divisions and wall-mounted feeders survive, along with quarry-tiled drinking troughs, cast-iron tethering rings, and stone-sett and concrete floors. An inter-connecting doorway with a 4-panel door survives between one of the stables and the cart shed (now a garage/workshop), whilst another between two of the stables has been blocked up. The cart shed has a stone-sett floor. The feedhouse was possibly originally a tack room/farm hand's room on the ground floor with a poultry floor above and a pigeon loft to the top of the building (the pigeon coop has since been removed). A stone-flag floor exists to the ground floor and a steep timber stair provides access up to the poultry floor, which also provides access into the hay lofts to each side above the mistles. A late-C20 breezeblock under-stair storage area* has been added, which is not of special interest. Inter-connecting doorways with ledged and braced doors exist between the feedhouse and the mistles to each side. The north-east mistle contains mid-C20 cattle stalls and feeders*, which are not of special interest. However, the south-west mistle contains original shaped cast-iron cattle stalls and cast-iron feeders. Slender cast-iron columns have been used to form bays within the stalls, and each stall has original twin drinking troughs. The mistle has a stone-sett floor incorporating a wide drainage channel.
NORTH-WEST - SOUTH-EAST RANGE: internally the bacon-curing room has a suspended timber floor and a cast-iron rack structure fixed at ceiling height that was possibly used to hang the hams from. A 4-panel door in the west corner provides access into a small room located behind the open store. The farmhouse interior* has been heavily altered and is not of special interest. An internal opening has been knocked through to connect the farmhouse into the former dairy*, which has been converted into a bedroom and a bathroom and its altered interior is also not of special interest.
YARD STRUCTURES: the pig/cattle pen contains late-C20 stalls*, which are not of special interest. The piggery retains its original roof structure composed of common and collar rafters. A single large space along the north-western side runs the near-full length of the building and has a quarry-tile lined feeding/drinking trough at the south-west end. A drainage channel also runs the length of the space. The south-eastern side of the building is split into a number of smaller spaces and rooms, including an outdoor toilet that originally served the farmhouse.
FORMER OPEN SHED: the original roof structure composed of common and collar rafters and a tie beam supporting a side purlin on the south-east side survives. Mid-C20 cattle feeders*, which are not of special interest have been installed along the south-east side.
* Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 ('the Act') it is declared that these aforementioned features are not of special architectural or historic interest.
