7 and 9 Carr Bank, including stone paths and walls to the rear of number 9

Summary

A former pair of cottages (number 7) of the late C18 (later used as a single dwelling and renovated in the late C20), with another cottage (number 9) of the early C19 at the rear with a mid-C19 extension, all in watershot coursed stone rubble and with stepped three-light windows in the local vernacular style. A 2019 kitchen extension to number 7 is excluded from the listing.

Reasons for Designation

7 and 9 Carr Bank, a former pair of cottages of the late C18 (now combined into number 7), with another cottage of the early C19 at the rear with a mid-C19 extension, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* externally number 7 remains legible as an example of late-C18 vernacular architecture, with locally-distinctive stepped three-light windows possibly indicating former domestic workshop use;
* internally both buildings retain much of their historic fabric, including stone and brick former party walls and hewn structural timbers (with carpenters’ marks and Baltic shipping marks) in number 7, and hewn beams and roof timbers, stone fireplaces, stone stairs , and niches with stone shelving in number 9;
* the ensemble is enhanced by the survival of stone paths and garden walls of vertical flags and masonry construction, including a probable bee-bole.

History

7 Carr Bank is thought to have been built in the late C18 and was originally two houses (6 and 7 Carr Bank). Number 9 was added to the rear probably in the early C19 – a building is shown in this location on the 1851 Ordnance Survey (OS) 1:10,560 map (surveyed 1844 to 1848). Cowpe’s first woollen mill was built around 1780, but these cottages might more directly relate to the Boarsgreave cotton spinning mill (also built in the late-C18), whose dam (reservoir) they back onto. They bear some similarities to weavers’ cottages elsewhere in the district. Pigsties to the west which were still standing (in a derelict state) in the early 1980s, and the extant stone-walled garden plots to the rear of number 9, which probably served all the houses, are also shown on the 1851 OS map.

The 1893 OS 1:2,500 map (surveyed in 1891) shows the western part of number 9, as a separate unit. The quoining only at the first floor of its joint with the eastern half, and the crossing of this joint by the entrance lintel, suggest a complex phasing history, including some increases in height or rebuilding either side of the joint.

The building was listed in 1984, when what is now number 7 was derelict, but still numbered as 6 and 7. However, the original List entry, and plans submitted in 1985, suggest that before falling derelict these two former cottages were already in use as a single dwelling, with the only stair to the second floor rising in the western half, and doorways in the party walls to the first and second floors.

In 1985 listed building consent was granted for the renovation of numbers 6 and 7 as a single dwelling. The former porch was removed and the western doorway blocked, and a window inserted above the eastern doorway. The west wall was rebuilt reusing the existing stone (with a blockwork lining), and the chimneystacks removed from both gables. The dividing wall on the ground floor of number 6 was removed and an opening made in the party wall, with a new doorway in the east side wall. The existing staircases were removed, with a new stair to both upper floors along the former party wall. Partitions to the upper floors were removed and some new stud walls inserted. All window frames were also replaced. The works were carried out by 1987.

Around 2019 a single-storey kitchen extension was added to the east side of number 7, and all of the windows have since been replaced in timber. The front boundary wall has also been rebuilt.

Details

A former pair of cottages of the late C18 (now combined), with another cottage of the early C19 at the rear with a mid-C19 extension.

MATERIALS: buff local sandstone, stone flag roofs, timber windows.

PLAN: the original pair of cottages (number 7) are aligned east-west and of simple two-room direct-entry plan, with the third cottage (number 9) to the north, a single room deep.

EXTERIOR: the front cottages (now number 7) are of three storeys, facing south, and of one bay each, of watershot rubble masonry in regular diminishing courses, and with eaves corbels. Each has stacked, stepped three-light windows, with the eastern doorway inboard of the windows. Above this is an inserted two-light window. The east wall is gabled with two-light flush-mullioned windows on the right of the upper floors. The ground floor is mostly obscured by a 2019 single-storey kitchen extension that is not of special interest and is excluded from the listing. The rebuilt west wall has two-light flush-mullioned windows to the ground floor (right), and upper floors (left), with doorway altered from a window at the left. The rear is largely obscured by number 9.

Number 9 is a lean-to and of two storeys in similar stonework (in 2025, all unsympathetically strap-pointed in cement), with a tall chimneystack at the left. Straight vertical joints divide it from number 7, and under the apex of the eastern eaves, immediately against number 7, is a blocked two-light flush-mullioned window.

A straight vertical joint also divides the front (north) façade, which is blind to the right of this This joint has alternating square quoins to its right at the first floor only. The eastern half has stacked central stepped three-light flush-mullioned windows, and a doorway at the right with stone surround, plus a lintel over (which extends beyond the vertical joint to the right). The western half has a short eaves chimneystack (replacing an earlier brick stack). The western façade has a stepped three-light flush-mullioned window to the ground floor, with two, two-light flush-mullioned windows above.

INTERIOR: to the ground and first floors of number 7 the former stone and brick party walls remain (now plastered), with a spine beam above them on the first floor. The upper floor is now a single space open to the roof which retains its hewn spine truss, with a kingpost projecting above the principal rafters, and entrenched purlins. The truss has carpenter’s marks and there are Baltic shipping marks on at least one purlin and the first-floor spine beam. The upper floor has painted stone walls (the route of the flue in the E wall remaining legible). The floors below have modern partition walls, and stair on the east side of the spine wall. Some ceiling joists and timber lintels remain visible. Otherwise the visible finishes are modern.

Number 9 has an inserted modern vestibule (with reused stained glass from elsewhere). The east half has exposed beams and a stone fireplace, a stone-shelved niche in the north-east corner, and a window seat. At the south end of the cross wall is a timber cupboard with three-plank door (cut down from a four-plank door), accessing a cupboard to the west, below the stairs. This has three steps down, a niche in the party wall with number 7, and stone shelves.

The west half has exposed ceiling joists, a stone fireplace with cooking range, and a ledged three-plank door accessing the stairs that rise eastwards against the party wall. The first floor has a partly-exposed truss at the head of the stairs, which wind to the left. The western and eastern rooms have ledged plank doors. In the attic the east wall retains the blocked former window under the eaves, and the west wall has a blockwork inner skin. The truss is partially planked on its east face, with a later brick cross wall to its east.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: to the rear of number 9 are paths with stone flags and some cobbles and stone steps, and stone walls enclosing former garden plots in a mix of vertical flags, dry-stone and mortared walling. The dry-stone walls include a drain for a local spring, and a possible bee-bole in the south-west corner.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

185611

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Hardman, W, History Of The Village Of Cowpe, (1918), 27

Websites
Heritage Gateway informaiton on Boarsgreave cotton mill, accessed 02/10/25 from https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=1585509&resourceID=19191

Other
1980s photos from the Lancashire HER (ref LHER_PRN10859)

End of official list entry

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