Summary
Farmhouse, C16, with later alterations.
Reasons for Designation
Wellhouse Farmhouse, C16, with later C18, C19 and C20 alterations, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* the core of the structure dates to the late-medieval period and it falls within the period where there is a presumption in favour of listing;
* the retention of substantial late-medieval timber-framing within a reconstructed stone-built house of 1576, together with evidence of later alteration, permits a good understanding of the phased development of the building;
* the survival of much of the original plan form, including a cross-passage and evidence of a second, is a rare survival and provides evidence of the use of the house and the status of its residents;
* there is good survival of fittings and fixtures dating from a range of periods;
* it contributes to the regional diversity and character of the West Yorkshire Pennines.
Historic interest:
* the farmhouse became part of a Moravian Church settlement established in 1752, one of only 30 established worldwide during the C18, based on the community established at Herrnhut in Germany, which emphasised prayer, worship and communal living.
History
Wellhouse Farmhouse is thought to have originated as a late medieval timber-framed house, built on a stone plinth; however, the present stone-built structure predominantly dates from the C16, with subsequent alterations during the C18, C19 and C20. The triangular lintel datestone over the blocked former front door is dated 1576; it probably marks the period when the house was substantially re-built in stone. It has a recessed panel with raised lettering that has been interpreted as abbreviations for ‘God be here’, ‘Gilbert Houldsworth’ the owner, and to commemorate the builder, Richard Lee; his status indicated by a depiction of a pick. The position of this blocked door, with a similar opposed doorway in the rear outshut, suggests that a former cross-passage existed between them and that a service wing once lay to the east. The existing front door on the western side of the main house body, does still enter a cross-passage with a surviving wall post and wall plate on the western side of the passage.
The farmhouse became part of a Moravian Church settlement established in 1752, along with the nearby settlements of Gomersal, Fulneck and Wyke; the settlement being one of only established 30 worldwide during the C18, based on the community established at Herrnhut in Germany, which emphasised prayer, worship and communal living. Wellhouse Farm is thought to have been employed by the Moravian church as a single brethren’s choir house between 1768 and 1824 and also possibly as a bakery and a laundry. The farmhouse was altered during the late C17 and C19; however, map regression shows that the farm's footprint has not altered greatly since the early C19. Map evidence shows the farmhouse was attached to a barn to its east, and a rectangular-plan building and yard to the rear; it is believed that this building was used as a Sunday school during the early C19, before it gained an agricultural use. The late C18 barn that was attached to the farmhouse was believed to have incorporated the service wing of the farmhouse; it was altered during the C18 and C19 to provide additional living accommodation, to function as a barn, and later as a workshop. The attached barn suffered a severe structural failure in the late 1980s that necessitated shoring up; however, the building continued to deteriorate and in the late 1990s, the northern half of the roof collapsed. The barn was demolished in its entirety and rebuilt as new residence between 2017 and 2020, albeit on the same footprint and with a similar external appearance. The farmhouse is the only original structure that remains.
Details
Farmhouse, C16, with later alterations.
MATERIALS: the main body of the house is built of coursed rubble with quoins and a plinth; the end walls of the west wing are of dressed stone. Windows are either timber sashes with lead glazing or casements; they either have ashlar surrounds with a central mullion and sill or ashlar lintels and sills. The roofs are clad in stone slates, with timber gutters.
PLAN: two-storey 'L'-plan house, with a single-storey lean-to outshut at the rear.
EXTERIOR: Wellhouse Farmhouse is attached to 10 Wellhouse to the west and to Wellhouse Farm Barn to the east; both properties partially over-sail the west and east ends of the house, but are not listed and do not form part of this List entry.
The two-storey main elevation faces roughly to the south and has a projecting hipped west wing with quoined corners, paired sash windows to both floors, a small casement window in the right return, and a closely set corbel table beneath the eaves of the hipped roof. The remainder of the main elevation is asymmetrical, the ground floor has a door to the left and a blocked doorway to the right, with a pair of four-light sashes set between them. The blocked doorway has an ashlar moulded surround and a four-centred arch triangular lintel that forms a datestone with raised letters in recessed panels, that reads: Gbh 1576 GH / RH and a pick. The first floor has a casement window towards each end, each with an ashlar surround and a central mullion.
The left coursed rubble return wall is attached and predominantly hidden by 10 Wellhouse; however, a small section at its northern end is exposed and it is blind apart from a small ground-floor casement window at its northern end. The rear elevation consists of the two-storey, gabled north wall of the west wing and a low single-storey outshut to the left, set beneath a cat-slide roof. The gable wall is built of coursed tooled stone and has quoined corners; the coursed rubble east wall of the west wing is partially exposed above the slope of the catslide roof. The casement windows to both floors are off-set to the right and flanked to the left by small rectangular windows that light a first-floor bathroom and a ground-floor larder. The single-storey elevation is asymmetrical, with a heavy plank door to the left within a recessed quoined and moulded ashlar surround, with a 4-centred arch triangular lintel, similar to that at the blocked front door. An off-set partially blocked doorway to the right, forms a window position that lights the cross-passage, and a small casement to one side lights the interior of the outshut.
The roof over the main range merges with the roof of the modern attached dwelling to the east, and to the west it terminates in a gabled wall, above the west range, and it has a catslide to the rear. The roof over the west wing is lower in height and has a gable to the north and a hip to the south. Both roofs are drained by timber gutters carried on projecting stone corbels with cast-iron downpipes. A tall brick ridge stack rises from the main range and is vented by a pair of Victorian buff-coloured clay chimney pots. A partially rendered stone chimney stack rises from the verge of the roof of the west range, with three brown salt-glazed chimney pots.
INTERIOR: a stone paved cross-passage is entered through a half-glazed plank door beneath a substantial oak beam. The door has several wrought-iron latches and bolts, and a pair of narrow wrought-iron strap hinges, hung on pintles. The cross-passage has wainscot panelling to both sides, and the former opposing rear doorway is partially blocked to form a window. A wall post within the thickness of the west wall, supports a wall plate that spans two-thirds of the length of the passage, and the low ceiling is supported by plastered timber beams. The ceiling beyond the wall post rises and forms the soffit of the outshut catslide roof. Immediately to the left of the front door there is a partially exposed door frame, and adjacent to the wall post, there is a stone lined cupboard recess. An open doorway leads into a lobby space within the west wing, which gives access to the drawing room, the kitchen, and a larder. The drawing room has a low ceiling with exposed reeded joists supported by chamfered and stopped beams. There are two exposed timber lintels in the north wall, and a large stone fireplace with a moulded surround and a deep triangular lintel, in the west wall. The kitchen has a chimney breast in the west wall and a low ceiling, supported by two chamfered oak beams. The pantry is entered by an oak door with four round-arched panels and reeded moulding; the stone floor has a timber floor hatch to a cellar, and a wall post raised on a stone plinth is exposed in the east wall. The dining room is situated on the opposite side of the cross-passage from the lobby; it has a low ceiling carried on two plastered beams. A central doorway with a narrow rectangular fanlight gives access to the stairs, and a plank and batten door at the northern end of the cross-passage gives access to a laundry room, within the outshut. The door is hung on wrought-iron t-head strap hinges with oval ends. The rear door is situated in the north wall; it is a heavy plank door hung on a pair of long wrought-iron strap t-hinges, with three bolts and a latch. A simple plank door in the south wall gives access to the under-stairs space. There is a C20 stone chimney stack in the south-east corner.
A plain staircase rises to the first-floor landing and is protected on the landing by a plain spindle balustrade. The wall on the northern side of the stairs has a jowled timber wall post raised on a stone plinth, an arcade plate, and a slightly up-swinging knee brace. Part of a tie beam and base of a principal rafter of a kingpost truss is exposed beneath the ceiling and one end rests on the wall post. Two small bedrooms on the southern side of the landing are entered through doorways with small rectangular fanlights, and in each room the soffit of the slope of the roof forms the ceilings over a low window. Doorways at the western end of the landing permit access to a small corridor and a bathroom within the west wing. The corridor gives access to a rear bedroom that has a chimney stack against the west wall, and the master bedroom to the front. The master bedroom has exposed floorboards, a low ceiling and a deeply splayed brick fireplace, with an Adams-style fire surround in the west wall.
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 29 April 2022 to correct a typo in the address
