Summary
House, early C19, and barn, mid-C19.
Reasons for Designation
Waterloo House and Barn are listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a substantial, detached Welsh Marches vernacular house dating from the early C19, within the date range when there is a presumption in favour of listing, and an associated multi-functional barn illustrating the evolution of the complex;
* the house is very little altered, its plan form is intact, and it retains a good collection of fixtures and fittings internally, illustrating its status and the hierarchy of spaces;
* the barn survives well, and retains internal fixtures demonstrating its specialist uses, and the crude quality of the joinery illustrates the lower status of this ancillary building.
Historic interest:
* as a building complex with domestic, agricultural, and possible minor industrial functions, it provides evidence of the development of the rural economy in mid-C19 south Shropshire.
History
Waterloo House is a domestic vernacular building; evidence suggests that it dates from the early C19. The associated barn, which appears to have had a minor industrial, as well as an agricultural function, dates from the mid-C19.
The first available map depicting the site is the I” Ordnance Survey dating from 1832-1836, which shows a single building on the plot. The Tithe map of 1847 confirms that, at that point, there was only a single range. By the time of the Ordnance Survey’s 1884 map, the second range had been built.
The house, besides the insertion of a bathroom into one of the bedrooms and the subdivision of the pantry, appears to have undergone relatively little alteration. Although the roof has been replaced, the original timber supporting structure survives beneath the replacement tiles. In the barn, the room containing the fireplace has had a large bread oven inserted, possibly in place of a brazier or copper; these features may have enabled a minor industrial function. In the other side is a stable or cow house, and there have been various lean-to store rooms added to the east, west and south elevations of the building. The timber-framed outshuts on the east and west elevations are excluded from the listing.
Details
House, early C19, and barn, mid-C19.
MATERIALS: the house is built from coursed limestone rubble and has a concrete-tiled roof with stone and brick chimneystacks. The barn is stone with some weatherboarding, a slate roof and a stone stack.
PLAN: the house stands set back from the roadside, orientated roughly north-south, and is rectangular on plan with a small outshut on the north-west corner.
The barn stands to the west, parallel with the house, separated by a courtyard. It is also rectangular, with stone outshuts on the west and south elevations, and later timber outshuts on the east and west.
EXTERIOR: the house has a symmetrical principal façade of three bays and two storeys with a pitched roof. There is a central six-panel front door beneath a later pitched timber porch. Windows have timber frames and pairs of six-light iron-framed casements, with four-light tilting casements above. All openings have flat stone arches. The rear elevation has a central doorway with a ledge and plank door, and pitched porch. There is a window on either side; each has a pair of two-light casements within a segmental-arched opening. The windows above, on the first floor, have flat heads. There are chimneystacks on both gable ends, which project slightly from the building line. The tops of the stacks have been rebuilt in brick and are partially rendered. A small window on each gable lights the attic.
The barn is constructed from stone, excepting the first floor of the east elevation, which is clad in weatherboarding on a timber frame. A garage outshut, excluded from the listing, obscures much of the elevation. To the left of the garage is a doorway with a ledge and plank door, and further left, a tripartite casement window. The north gable end has a doorway into a stable or cow house, and there is a small square taking-in door on the first floor. The west elevation has a small stone and timber outshut storeroom, and a larger corrugated-iron shed (excluded from the listing). The south gable is blind and has an internal chimneystack rising from the apex, and a small outshut storeroom.
INTERIOR: the house has a four-room plan with a central hallway, stair and through-passage. It has a similar configuration on the first floor, and there are two attic rooms reached by a central stair. It retains a largely complete collection of original joinery, with six-panel doors on the ground floor, panelled window seats, architraves, skirtings and picture rails in the principal rooms. The sitting room has a cast-iron fireplace with tiled slips with an extensive timber surround with cupboards built into the recesses on either side. There is a deep chamfered spine beam with run-out stops, and the joists of the floor above are left exposed. In the dining room there is a similar fireplace with a moulded timber chimneypiece. The pantry has a slate-topped bench. The stair has a simple moulded newel and handrail with stick balusters and mouldings to the open string.
The first floor is slightly more modest in its joinery, with four-panelled doors, and retains most architraves to the doorways and windows, and has wide timber floorboards. There are simple fitted cupboards in the master bedroom. Windows and doors throughout the house retain their simple C19 ironmongery. In the attic there is a central hallway with a simple stick balustrade above the stair void. A principal truss has been cut through to create an entrance into the northern room, and has lath and plaster infill. Within the loft it is evident that the roof has been replaced, though the earlier pegged coupled rafters remain in place.
The main range of the barn has two rooms, with no communication between them. The room on the south has a wide fireplace and large bread oven, added later, to one side. A winding stair in a crudely-panelled compartment leads to the first floor, which is a single space with a lightweight partition beneath the southernmost truss. The two trusses have a kingpost with curved struts rising from the tie beam. There is a single deep purlin on either side, with a neat arrangement of rafters and batons.
The other room on the ground floor is a stable or cow house. It has crude stall partitions, mangers and hayracks; there have been various alterations to the structural joinery to incorporate these features. Notably, the deep axial beam has been cut short, and is supported on an inserted upright post.
Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that timber-framed outshuts adjoining the barn are not of special architectural or historic interest.
