Taylor's Farmhouse

Summary

A 17th century farmhouse, with mid-18th century additions. Constructed in a local vernacular style and materials. The interior retains a good range of original and historic fixtures and fittings.

Reasons for Designation

Taylor's Farmhouse, of late-C17 date and extended in the mid-C18, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a good example of a late-C17 farmhouse constructed in the local vernacular style and materials, that retains a significant amount of structural fabric, including mass walling, roof structures, and chamfered floor/ceiling beams;

* the dwelling’s original two-unit gable-entry plan is preserved and highly legible within the evolved building, which acquired a cross passage and additional service accommodation in the mid-C18;

* the interior retains a range of original and historic fixtures and fittings, including flagged floors, panelled doors and door furniture, beams, wide floorboards, a timber partition, spice cupboards, chimneypieces, and a large piece of fixed furniture;

* it contributes to our understanding of regional diversity in England and illustrates the type of simple evolved farmsteads that characterise this region.

History

This farmhouse is considered to have been constructed in the later C17 as a gable-entry two-roomed dwelling, comprising a firehouse (heated living room) and a parlour (unheated sleeping room), with a sleeping/storage loft above. In 1746 the dwelling was extended to the east by the addition of a cross-passage (entered through a new entrance on the south-east elevation) and a new service room. The rear outshut, or at least part of it, was probably added at this time, along with an attached bank barn (demolished). The extended building is depicted on the Tithe map of 1838 and described in the accompanying apportionment as a 'Dwelling House'; it was owned by the 'Devisees (inheritors) of Thomas Taylor', and was occupied by a John Lancaster, who in the 1841 census was living in Great Strickland Village with his father and older brother.

Details

Farmhouse, C17 with mid C18 additions.

MATERIALS: local sandstone, rendered to all elevations, with graduated green slate roof covering and red-brick chimney stacks.

EXTERIOR: two storeys and four bays beneath a pitched roof of graduated Westmorland slate, with end stacks and a ridge stack. It has a rubble plinth, and an eaves cornice. The original part of the house has three ground-floor and three first-floor windows, all fitted with Yorkshire sliding sashes and with projecting stone sills. There is also a narrow fire window to the right, lighting the internal inglenook. The dated extension has a part-glazed door within a painted flush surround, and a deep lintel inscribed with the initials 'T M T' and the date '1746'. To the right of the door and above right is a single sliding-sash window. The right return is blind. The rear elevation is obscured by an outshut, and where the original rear wall is visible there is evidence of two blocked openings.

INTERIOR: the C17 part of the farmhouse comprises a firehouse and parlour, and was originally entered through a deep opening in the east gable, around the end of an inglenook. This entrance has a three-boarded door, and an upright handle inscribed with the initials 'ETM' and the date '1733'. The door's rear face retains a large original lock box and a pair of strap hinges. The firehouse has a flagged floor and several substantial, chamfered and stopped timber ceiling beams. Its inglenook is lit by a narrow fire window, and it has a narrow, inserted chimney breast and a bressummer or fire beam immediately to the front which would have supported a former chimney hood. There is a blocked window to the north wall. An C18 fielded large panel partition separates the firehouse from the parlour; the panel has a shallow recess (plate rack) fronted by a trefoiled arcade above the central boarded door. The parlour has a bolection-moulded mid-C18 stone chimney piece, and a mid-C19 arch-headed cast-iron grate. There is also a substantial fixed cupboard with scroll decoration and the carved initials 'MF' and the date '1700'. There is a blocked window to the north wall. The blocked windows to both rooms became redundant when the rear outshut was later added.

The mid-C18 addition consists of a cross-passage and a narrow service room. The passage has a flagged floor with openings at either end with timber lintels; at the north end, the passage leads into the rear outshut; the inside of this opening retains a wide drip mould above the door, indicating that the outshut here is also a later extension. The service room (now a kitchen) opens off the passage to the east; it has a wide-boarded door, a flagged floor, a chamfered ceiling beam, and a chamfered bresumer or firebeam in front of a former inglenook. An historic circular, timber post appears to have been introduced, and could be a heck post removed from the firehouse. The rear outshut consists of a central stair tower, flanked to either side by a small room, formerly a buttery/pantry.

The staircase is a late-C20 timber replacement. There are timber-boarded floors to the first floor retaining some very wide floor boards. There is a C19 decorative cast-iron hob-grate to the room above the parlour. The pegged timber roof structure to the earliest part of the house remains in situ; it comprises three triangular trusses with yokes, and two of the tie beams have been cut off at the ends to provide head space. It has double purlins and a ridge piece. There is a three-panel door between the original house and the mid-C18 extension, carved crudely with the initials 'T T'. A reconstructed stone chimney piece in a corner of what is now a bathroom, retains a head that is identical to that of the parlour chimney piece. To its left side is a full-height cupboard with C18 panelled doors, moved from elsewhere within the building.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

74260

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Denyer, S, Traditional Buildings and Life in The Lake District, (1991)
Brunskill, RW, Traditional Buildings of Cumbria, (2002)

End of official list entry

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