Middle House

Details

SD 96 NW
15/133

MALHAM MOOR
MONK'S ROAD
(west side)
Middle House

GV
II

Farmhouse, now derelict. Mid C17 with probably early C18 porch and
alterations, C19 conversion to farmbuilding. Limestone and gritstone
rubble; ashlar blocks to porch, graduated stone slate roof. 2 storeys, 3
bays standing, 2 bays ruined at the time of resurvey, the left-hand bay an
addition. Quoins. Standing bays: ashlar single-storey porch, right,has
chamfered lintel and recessed plaque with raised letters, "H K ". Recessed
chamfered mullion windows throughout: of 4 and 2 lights to bays 1 and 2,
ground floor, the far left mullions missing and the bay 2 mullions hollow-
moulded. First floor: three 2-light windows, the central mullion lower and
lacking the mullion. Hoodmoulds to windows on left and above porch. To
right of the porch there was a blocked window - the left and right jambs
remaining in this now ruined wall. A break in the building line to first
floor between bays 1 and 2 and traces of a blocked doorway far left
indicate that bay 1 is additional. Banded end stack far left. The roof of
bays 3, 4 and 5, and the front and east gable walls of bays 4 and 5 have
collapsed apart from the blocked original doorway between bays 4 and 5
which has chamfered quoined jambs and a triangular arched head under a
square chamfer. Rear: the walling survives to full height. There is a
blocked central doorway (opposite porch entrance); all other openings also
blocked: a 2-light recessed chamfered mullion window to right, a similar
single light above and another single light to left. Remains of an
external staircase and loading door between door and right-hand window; a
straight join between right bay and rest. Interior: bay 1 - a gable
fireplace with plain stone surround; a shallow curved recess and blocked 2-
light window in the partition wall between bays 1 and 2; the standing
partititon wall between bays 4 and 5 has a stone stack underbuilt in brick.
History: the house stands on the site of a possibly Norse settlement which
was taken over as a grange of Fountains Abbey in the C13 (then called
Midlow House). The house now remaining dates from the C17 when the farm
was owned by the Knowles family; the three rooms with the door opening into
an unheated room, possibly a byre, indicate a hearth-passage plan. The
porch is thought to have been added in 1721 by Henry King (Raistrick p.
101), the new entrance being into the living room/kitchen, with a narrower
inner room probably divided into unheated bedroom and larder. The left bay
was added in the mid-late C18, possibly also by Henry King, and appears to
have been a separate cottage, the curved recess probably a built-in
cupboard. Measured drawings made in 1986 show a large inserted window to
right of the porch (?C18) and a C19/20 east entrance to right of the
original doorway. The rear stairs and first-floor doorway indicate the
conversion of the house to agricultural use in the C19/20, when louvres
were inserted into several of the front windows and the cart entrance
opened up on the front. Yorkshire Buildings Study Group, Report No. 1116,
1986. A. Raistrick, Malham and Malham Moor, 1947 (reprinted 1983),p. 101

Listing NGR: SD9068268130

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

324720

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Raistrick, A, Malham and Malham Moor, (1983), 101

End of official list entry

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