Topham's Farmhouse

Details

SD 9867 CONISTONE WITH KILNSEY KILNSEY ROAD (south side) Conistone

24/62 Topham's Farmhouse

10.9.54

GV II

Farmhouse. Dated 1630, with C18 additions and restoration c1980. Coursed limestone rubble, gritstone dressings, graduated stone slate roof. 2 storeys, 4 first-floor windows to 3-bay lobby entry plan original house; added bay to left, and rear outshut bay 1. The C17 house has quoins and a C20 glazed door in chamfered quoined surround with shallow triangular doorhead between bays 2 and 3; the large lintel has a recessed panel with raised lettering, "1630 ? G.H.". C20 porch not of special interest. Blocked doorway far right. Fenestration of 1630 house has recessed chamfered windows to original openings. Ground floor, bay 1 -probably a former 2-light window, the mullion removed, hood mould over; bay 2- 4, now 2 lights with hoodmould and lowered sill, bay 3 similar. First floor: below eaves windows of 2,3 and 3 lights, the mullions removed; inserted bathroom window between bays 2 and 3. Large stack to ridge above door and far right. Added bay to left: glazed door right with single stone right jamb; and external stone stair to left provides a flat hood to the ground floor door, supported by a massive corbel. The top slab of the stair is concrete, the first-floor door glazed, with restored jambs and sill. Rear (to road): main range - chamfered fire window bay 2 and remains of a similar window far right; C20 openings to remainder. The outshut, right, has a 2-light recessed chamfered mullion window in the left return. Interior: the central room has a fine fireplace with 3-part stone arch composed of a central keystone and flanking single blocks incised in imitation of voussoirs; the arch and jambs have cyma mouldings to the chamfer. Large chamfered cross beam and joists, those linked to the chimney breast replaced. The inner room to right has a smaller fireplace with chamfered corbelled jambs and a simple shallow triangular arched lintel. Spine beam with stepped run-out stops, the joists set into horizontal timbers or wall-beams, some resting on corbels. First floor: the principal roof-truss is above the central room cross beam and is of king-post construction, the tie beam supported by short principals carried on moulded corbels projecting from the inner face of the wall. There is a small fireplace backing onto the stack in bay 3, with sawn stone surround. One of the earliest dated buildings in the area. The plan of central hall, parlour and services is a typical medieval house plan and the added outshut/dairy (lined with stone shelves) and outbuilding with hayloft or granary over, reflects C18 changes in farming. The initial H may be for Hewitt or Horner, two families who bought land in the village in the late C16 (Raistrick p.49) the name Topham's may have become attached to the buildings when William Higglesworth left a house in the village to Robert Topham (of his mother's family) in 1768. North Yorkshire Buildings Group , Report No. 568, 1979 A. Raistrick, Old Yorkshire Dales, 1971 p.49

Listing NGR: SD9807367463

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

324649

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Raistrick, A, Old Yorkshire Dales, (1967), 49
North Yorkshire and Cleveland Vernacular Buildings Study Group Report in North Yorkshire and Cleveland Vernacular Buildings Study Group Report, Vol. 568, ()

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