Summary
Farm dwellings and barn of probable C17 origins with a laithe-house plan, of local grit stone with stone roof flags, remodelled in phases in the early C19.
Reasons for Designation
The former Lower Hollins farmhouse, including attached barn, garden and retaining walls, setted yard and detached outbuilding, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* it is a good example of a pre-1850 combined vernacular dwelling and agricultural building;
* it survives well, retaining considerable historic fabric which contributes to the understanding of the development and use of the building from the C17, in particular the stone-vaulted pantry, domestic fireplaces and the structures within the barn;
* its interest is enhanced by the survival of subsidiary features including retaining, boundary and garden walls, a three-chambered outhouse, and a stone-surfaced yard.
Group value:
* for its strong visual and functional group value with the nearby 5 and 6 Hollins Lane and the attached barn (Grade II).
History
The farm dwellings and barn at Lower Hollins are largely of C19 character but appear to have originated as early as the C17. Hollins is marked on the 1828 map (originally surveyed in 1817) by Greenwood, along with the nearby Clunters, and was clearly already well established and prominent in the locality by that date. The similarity between Lower Hollins and the listed farmhouse and barn at Upper Hollins (numbers 5 and 6, National Heritage List for England (NHLE) entry 1184370) suggests that they were the work of the same builder.
Census records suggest that the residents have not always been farmers; all of the occupations given of residents at Hollins (sometimes referred to as Hollings) in 1841, for example, relate to the wool trade except for two stone masons, who lived in ‘Hollings lower’ and thus might have occupied this site.
The building fabric indicates several phases of construction. The rear walling of the ‘house’ (in 2025, the name for the eastern portion of the dwelling) has markedly different masonry at its ground floor and has clearly been raised. Its chamfered window surround suggests a C17 date. The same is true of the blocked mullioned window in the west wall, which also indicates that the room it lit was once unheated, since the chimney breast now rises behind this window. The western wall of the barn has also clearly been raised, as internally-projecting embedded roof flags display an earlier roofline, with vents which must formerly have been exposed to the west. This earlier roofline would respect the roof of a building to the west with its eaves at the level of the masonry change in the rear wall. This might have been an original humble dwelling, and had direct access into the upper level of the barn, indicated by a blocked doorway which is below the gable vents. Corbel stones just above the shoulders of the doorway probably indicate the original lower roofline of the dwelling, but might also suggest that the barn itself was originally the same height as the dwelling and has been raised twice. A straight vertical joint towards the north angle of the barn’s west wall shows that the barn was raised (presumably when the house was raised to two storeys), but then also widened to the north in another phase.
The first edition 1:10,560 Ordnance Survey (OS) map (surveyed 1848 to 1850) includes the small three-chambered outbuilding to the south, which might have been closets for each dwelling. Although the dwelling is marked on maps as in three parts from the late C19 and there are three doorways to the front, a blocked doorway in the wall dividing the ‘house’ from what is currently known as the ‘cottage’, indicates that at one time these formed part of the same dwelling. A stone-blocked doorway in the wall dividing the two cells of the ‘house’ also suggests that these formed part of one dwelling before the current doorway was inserted further north in this wall. The vaulted ceiling of the pantry in the rear outshut also indicates that the room above this is a later addition. Although it partly abuts the cottage, there is no indication that it was ever accessible from the cottage. The pantry itself was also never accessible from the cottage, and this room above it has a single fireplace, indicating that it was never divided between properties. The stair to the first floor of the eastern bay of the house was presumably removed when it and the centre bay became one dwelling (probably also when the central entrance was converted to a window), and witness marks suggest it was in the north-east corner.
Around 2014, the front pitch of the eastern bay of the barn roof collapsed. The property was vacated in 2023, and some theft of roof flags is reported to have taken place. In 2024 scaffolding was erected and the remaining roof flags were stripped from the entire building (retained for reuse), and the interior was stripped of many modern finishes and fittings.
Details
Farm dwellings and barn of probable C17 origins, remodelled in phases in the early C19.
MATERIALS: local grit stone, stone roof flags, timber and cast-iron rainwater goods.
PLAN: laithe-house plan aligned east-west, of three cottages with a barn to the east, and a northern pantry outshut.
EXTERIOR: set into a hillside above the River Calder as part of a fold of similar buildings, and facing south. Of two storeys, with three bays of dwelling at the left and a three-bay barn. The coursed squared masonry is watershot (with inappropriate modern cement ribbon pointing). The left angle has large quoins. Openings have plain stone surrounds, and flat-faced mullions to the windows. Each cottage bay has one window and a doorway to the ground floor, and one window to the first floor, not directly stacked. From the left, number 9 has a four-panel door, and a two-light window to the first floor, with late-C19 sliding sash in the left light and non-opening light with glazing bars. Number 10 has a two-light ground-floor window and a window in a partially-blocked doorway, and a three-light first-floor window. Number 11 has former two-light windows to each floor, with removed mullions (all modern timber with some opening casements), and a modern glazed timber door. Each cottage has a stone chimney stack to its left with stone verges and cornices (except number 9’s which is truncated). Ogee cast-iron gutters are carried on wrought-iron stays. The barn to the right has a round-arched cart entry to the left of centre, with tie-stones to the jambs and an arched window above. To the left of this and at the right-hand end are shippon doorways also with tie-stones (and vertical-plank timber doors), and to the far left is an inserted window with one round-arched vent above it. The timber box gutters are supported by plain stone corbels.
The east wall is gabled and asymmetrical with lower eaves to the right, and has round-arched owl-hole and vents. At the ground floor are two small windows and a large vent.
The rear wall of the barn is largely blind but has a small doorway opposite the cart entrance, reached by stone steps, and a window above. There is a small inward return, to the rear wall of the cottages. This rear wall has slobbered narrow-coursed masonry to the ground floor. Each bay has a window to each floor (no mullions, all modern timber); the left-hand ground-floor window has a double-chamfered surround. To the right the outshut projects. In the angle is a two-light mullioned window with C19 sash windows. The rear wall is gabled with a central stack, and has a small first-floor window.
The west walls of the outshut and house are blind. The house is gabled and has a blocked two-light mullioned window (probably C17) below the gable. The ground floor is obscured by a raised path.
INTERIOR: retaining much historic building fabric throughout including hewn joists and roof purlins, late-C18 or early-C19 squared stone fire surrounds, and cantilevered stone stairs. The ground floors are concrete and ceiling beams are modern replacements. Number 9 retains a fireplace to each floor, with a very deep lintel and a chamfered mantel shelf to the ground floor. The front door, which is panelled externally, is a ledged four-plank door internally. An adjacent blocked doorway formerly accessed number 10; there is now a wide opening to the north end of the party wall. The stairs are walled off with an open doorway beneath them in the north-west corner. Here the west wall has a blocked narrow window (now below ground) and the north wall a blocked square window and small niche below. The stair door is also four-panelled to the front and planked to the rear. A hewn purlin is exposed over the stairs, corbelled on the inner wall.
Number 10 has a shouldered narrow former doorway with a wide lintel, blocked in stone, in the party wall with number 11, and an inserted doorway in the north end of the wall. The parlour chimney breast is plastered but thought to retain its stone surround. The stairs and kitchen along the rear wall are walled off. Below the stairs is a sunken access to the outshut, which contains a stone-vaulted pantry with stone-flagged floor, wall niches and stone shelves, and a boarded former window to the east. Stone steps from the parlour access a half-landing, with three steps to the north to a room over the pantry. The chimney breast is plastered but retains the chamfered mantel shelf and the stone fire surround is thought to survive beneath the plaster. Steps along the rear wall from the half landing access the first floor of the housebody, which is open and still has some modern finishes. A stone fire surround with chamfered mantelshelf survives, with one four-panelled door. An inserted doorway accesses the former number 11.
Number 11 has lost its downstairs fire surround but retains the one upstairs, with its chamfered mantelshelf.
The barn floor is stone-flagged. Its strutted queen-post roof trusses are all machine-sawn replacements, but the pegged-through purlins probably match historic design; some hewn purlins survive, probably reused. East and west shippons have stone walls with feeding openings facing the cartway, and flat timber roofs forming haylofts above. The western shippon has been raised in brick above sill level (probably to accommodate horses). Both retain some late-C19 stalling, and plank mistal doors to the front wall. There has been some collapse of the roof structure in the south-east corner, and consequent damage to the eastern shippon. The west shippon retains ceramic water troughs and a pair of manger brackets (in the north-west corner). The eastern shippon is slightly sunken with steps down to it against the front wall.
The vents and owl-hole of the east wall are brick-blocked internally. The west wall has a straight vertical joint in the north corner, which rises above embedded roof flags below the current roofline. There is a stone-blocked doorway with squared surrounds, and stone-blocked slit vents.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the raised path to the west of the house is retained by a dry-stone wall.
To the south of the house is a detached single-storey building of similar materials and detailing, with a canted east wall and a monopitch roof with hewn purlins. The building is divided into three chambers each around 3m long and 1.5m wide, each with its own doorway (one in the south wall).
The yard in front of the building is paved with squared stone setts of varying sizes, and at the east end is a stone gatepost.
To the north of the house is a late-C19 garden wall of coursed squared stone. Adjacent to the western path this has triangular coping stones (in 2025, some removed to accommodate the scaffolding). Elsewhere these are more rounded.
