Summary
Farmhouse, C17 with C18 addition and two bank barns of late C18 or early-C19 date.
Reasons for Designation
Collinfield Farmhouse, of later-C17 date, and two bank barns of C18 and C19 date, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* a later-C17 evolved dwelling where the original two-unit plan house is preserved and highly legible within the evolved building;
* good survival of structural fabric, including mass walling, ceiling beams, and a range of historic internal fixtures and fittings, such as an C18 oak dog-leg staircase, plank and muntin panelling, and historic doors with matching door furniture;
* of particular note is the survival of an original upper cruck roof structure to the original house and its rear stair turret, comprising at least three cruck pairs;
* the pair of bank barns retain their original vernacular character through which their threshing, storage and animal housing functions are clearly expressed, in addition to good interior survival, including roof structures;
* taken together, the farmhouse and barns are a good example of an evolved Westmorland farmstead, characteristic of the region, and which contribute to our understanding of regional diversity and local vernacular style and materials.
History
Collinfield farmstead is present on the 1:10,560 Ordnance Survey map surveyed between 1846 and 1848. It comprises a farmhouse, two barns and a small outbuilding. The buildings have unchanged footprints on the second edition 1:2,500 OS map of 1898, and the third edition surveyed in 1912 shows that the outbuilding has been extended or replaced with a larger building.
The farmhouse and barns largely retain the same footprints down to the present day. Farmhouses in Westmorland often originate during the C17 reorganisation and expansion in this region, from which time other groups of farm buildings survive, although some examples have earlier origins. Collinfield was originally constructed as a single-storey two-unit-plan house with a cruck-framed roof; it comprised a living room to the north with a parlour to the south, and had an original entrance through the north gable, opening through a heck passage direct into the main living room. Subsequently a cross passage entered through an entrance in the east elevation was created from the south part of the main living room. The house was extended to the north in the C18 by the addition of an extra bay, creating a three-unit dwelling. We understand that the house was originally unrendered and that the ground floor room in the C18 extension was fully panelled until the early 1960s.
The pair of bank barns are traditional combination barns that group all of the major farm buildings under one roof. They are on two levels with a cow house, stable and other functions on the lower level and a threshing barn at the upper level, usually reached by a ramp. The L-shaped barn is the earlier of the two buildings, and have undergone various alterations over time.
Details
Farmhouse, C17 with C18 addition, and two bank barns of late-C18 or early-C19 date.
MATERIALS: all buildings are of stone rubble construction and have graduated Westmorland slate roofs. The farmhouse is roughcast and rendered.
PLAN: a small dispersed farmstead comprising a farmhouse, an L-shaped bank barn and a rectangular bank barn. The farmhouse was originally a two-unit, gable-entry plan forming a main living room and a parlour. This plan evolved into a three-unit dwelling by the addition of an C18 single bay to the north, and a cross passage entered from a new entrance in the east elevation.
EXTERIOR
FARMHOUSE: all window openings have stone sills, and C20 timber replacement frames. The original part of the farmhouse has two storeys and two bays beneath a pitched roof of graduated slate with corniced end gable stacks. The south elevation has a secondary central entrance, fitted with a modern replacement door, and a later porch. This is flanked to either side by a rectangular window, and above there is a continuous slate dripmould, and two rectangular first floor windows. The original roof line is uneven, indicating the presence of an early roof structure. The attached single-bay addition is slightly set back from, and is lower than, the original house, but also has a pitched roof of slate with a substantial right end external chimney stack. It has an original entrance and a first-floor rectangular window above, the former now housed within a later single-storey lean-to extension. The right return has a central external chimney stack and a single first-floor window. The left return has a first-floor drip mould and an attic light with a drip mould above. The rear elevation of the original house has an attached two-storey stair projection with a pitched roof, and ground and first floor windows to the side walls. Attached to its rear is a single-storey pitched roof addition. The rear of the C18 addition has a ground floor window with drip mould.
L-SHAPED BARN: a two-storey bank barn immediately adjacent to the farmhouse and probably the earliest farm building. It is oriented north to south, with its west side embedded into rising ground, and is built of stone rubble with quoins, beneath a pitched roof of graduated slate. The south gable has a ground-floor entrance with a flat stone arch and slate drip mould over; above and to the right there are four lines of through stones, and an owl hole to the apex. The east elevation has three regularly-spaced ground floor entrances beneath stone lintels, two with historic boarded doors. The more southerly entrance is now blocked with stone. There are four small ground floor window openings, and most door and window openings have drip moulds. There is a single centrally-placed pitching door set within a much larger opening with timber lintel and stone sill, now blocked, and to either side of this there are the remains of about five square ventilation holes. The north gable has a single-storey attached lean to, and above there is a probable blocked window, with an owl hole to the apex. The west elevation has a wide, full-height central threshing entrance to the first floor, reached by an earthen ramp, and to the left there is a pair of small, square ventilation openings with stone sills. To the right of the threshing door the barn wall projects forwards in the form of a pentice roof, and this projection has an attached later brick lean-to.
RECTANGULAR BARN: a two-storey bank barn, oriented east to west built of stone rubble with quoins, beneath a pitch roof of graduated slate. The west gable has a chamfered left corner, a single ground floor window with a stone sill and hood mould, and an opening to the right, now blocked. Above, there is a large ventilation slit and an owl hole to the apex. The north elevation has a central, full-height, quoined first floor threshing door with a pentice roof; there is a pair of large ventilation slits to the left, and a similar slit to the right. The south elevation has three openings with timber lintels and stone drip moulds: the most westerly opens into the undercroft, and has a long timber lintel that also runs above a single blocked window immediately to the right. The central opening is at first floor level and is partially blocked, and forms a winnowing/pitching door. The most easterly opening accesses the undercroft. The upper part of the north-east corner of this elevation has partially collapsed. The east gable has a single central window to the undercroft and is otherwise blind. The gable apex and a part of the left wall has collapsed, and the gable end is leaning outwards.
INTERIOR
FARMHOUSE: the C18 addition comprises a single ground floor room with stop-chamfered ceiling beams, and a stone, tapering chimney breast to the north wall. A plank and batten door of mixed widths with strap hinges and a bar latch is fitted to the original gable entry of the house in the south-west corner of the room. This opens into a short heck passage, with a boarded partition of varying width timber boards, terminating at a substantial, chamfered heck post within the main living room. The latter has plain plastered walls and a pair of substantial, adzed ceiling beams; the rafters are chamfer stopped. The more northerly beam is a bressumer or fire beam that formed an original inglenook, and which formerly supported a fire hood. The inglenook now has a later chimneybreast with a C20 range, and fitted cupboards to a right alcove. The ceiling beams of the main living room project through an inserted C18 plaster partition, and terminate in stopped chamfers at a third substantial ceiling beam now within the inserted passage. The full-length, original plank and muntin timber partition of the main living room is retained as the south side of the passage and comprises a mixture of boards of differing width. The partition has an original central doorway fitted with a wide-boarded panelled door, with strap hinges, and a bar latch; this opens into the adjacent parlour, which has plain painted plaster walls and a later fire breast with C20 hearth. An opening at the west end of the corridor has a wide-boarded three-panelled door and an upright door handle of C17 or C18 form. This door opens into the rear stair projection, and to the right of the stair there is a buttery entered through a wide three-panelled door with later square opening, and an upright door handle. The room has roughly plastered walls, slate benches on stone supports, and a rectangular alcove. This room opens into a second larder housed in an extension to the turret, and is similarly fitted out.
An C18 oak dog-leg staircase rises to the first floor and is lit by a stair window. The first-floor has wooden floorboards of varying width and several rooms including one above the C18 addition. One room retains a plank and plaster panelled wall, and another a C19 chimney piece. There are a number of rustic door cases, one with an overlight, and plank and batten of various styles and board widths, mostly of C17 and C18 form with contemporary door furniture including strap hinges, bar latches and a key box with incised decoration. The simple staircase continues to the intact second-floor, which includes a large raised storage area. Part of the roof structure of the original two-unit building can be seen through an opening from the stair projection: it comprises a pair of cruck trusses, some with extremely curved members, double purlins and a ridge piece. There is evidence of alteration and additions to the roof structure including rustic king posts. There is also a cruck pair embedded within the rear west wall of the original dwelling, from which the historic double purlin roof structure of the rear stair turret projects.
L-SHAPED BARN: the bank barn has a first-floor full-length threshing floor with storage to either side, and cow houses and loose boxes to the undercrofts. The first floor is accessed from ground level through the west elevation and retains a pegged triangular truss double purlin roof structure with ridge piece, comprising three triangular trusses. The undercroft retains its original timber structure and also contains historic byre fittings, including rows of timber and slate stalls, some replaced with mid-C20 byre fittings.
RECTANGULAR BARN: the first-floor threshing barn has three waney, but spindly, triangular trusses forming a double purlin roof with ridge piece. At undercroft level there is a full-width stable with original timber and slate stalls and cobbled floor, to the western part. A byre forms the eastern part, which retains the timber undercroft structure and two sets of timber byres separated by a manure/feeding channel.
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 6 March 2024 to correct a typo in the address
