Selbys Farmhouse

Details

HILDENBOROUGH POWDER MILL LANE (east side) TQ 54 NE 5/196 Selbys Farmhouse 20.10.54 GV II Former farmhouse. Circa late C15 origins, partly rebuilt in the late C17. framed construction to the north wing, the ground floor underbuilt in brick, the first floor tile-hung. The main range is brick, the first floor framed and tile-hung; peg-tile roof, slate roof to outshut; brick stacks.

Plan and Development: Complex evolution. A west-facing L plan house, the main range 2 cells with a 2-cell rear (north) wing at right angles. The wing is the earliest surviving part of the building and dates from the circa late C15. The west end cell of the wing was jettied on the west end and north side with a solar over the ground floor room. The east end cell was a small l-bay open hearth room, perhaps the kitchen, although its position is not particularly convenient for the medieval hall. The main range, presumably the site of the original hall, was rebuilt in the late C17. The axial stack between the solar wing and the main range is weathered below the present main range roof level and probably served the hall in the circa late C16 before the late C17 rebuilding. The main range now contains 2 heated rooms, the south end room heated from an end stack, and has a rear outshut, also with a south end stack. Lobby entrance against the axial stack.

Exterior: 2 storeys and attic. Asymmetrical 3-window west front, the roof hipped over the wing at the left end; late C17 projecting stack at the right end. The axial stack has staggered triple chimneyshafts with corbelled cornices and inward angled caps. C20 front door to the Lobby entrance to left of centre. 1956 fenestration of 4-light casements with square leaded panes in metal frames; similarly-glazed canted bay window to the right of the front door. 2 attic dormers with hipped roofs. The north side of the wing is 3 windows, with the remains of a 1-light late C15 cusped window to first floor right. The gabled east end of the wing has a formerly unglazed mullioned 3- light window. C20 timber casement windows and a C20 door to the outshut with 2 gabled dormers at the junction with the main range.

Interior: The wing is particularly well-preserved. The front (west) ground floor room has a dragon beam and large exposed joists. The brick fireplace has a chamfered oak litel, the fireback constructed of bricks laid in herringbone pattern. The 2-bay solar above has a fine original late medieval crown post roof with an octagonal crown post on a moulded tie-beam with short ach bracces, the crown post with 4-way bracing above the moulded capital. The east end partition has a plain crown post, braced to the collar purlin. The brick fireplace has a chamfered oak lintel. On the south wall a one-light oak window with a cinquefoil-headed light with moulded cusping, pierced spandrels and shutter grooves for horizontal sliding shutters. The window is now internal but originally looked out above the level of the old hall roof. Evidence of other, similar windows, the heads cut away for later casements was found during renovations of the 1970s. The one-bay east cell of the wing has a heavily-sooted common rafter roof. The north room fo the main block has a large open fireplace.

Mr J.M. Edwards has researched the history of Selbys. In 1480 it was called Romneys and occupied by a family of that name. From the late C16 to the late C17 it was owned by a series of city merchant families in the cloth trade ('Dachurst Manor and Selbys Farm', text of a talk by J.M. Edwards to the Leigh Historical Society, 21:2:86).

An evolved house with an important and well-preserved late medieval solar wing.

Report and photographs following an RCHM survey of 1975 in the National Monument Record.

Listing NGR: TQ5677947512

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

179629

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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