Summary
Gothick-style stable of stone and brick with hayloft above, C18, altered in the C21.
Reasons for Designation
The stable at Seddon’s Fold, an C18 stable with hayloft above, altered in the C21, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
*Date and rarity: as an important rare example of a substantially complete C18 farm building, probably combining stabling with ancillary accommodation.
*Design and craftsmanship: of its good quality Gothick-style architectural detailing.
*Historic importance: as physical evidence for pre-industrial agriculture at a level below the great landed estates, illustrating important aspects of the social and economic history of the nation.
*Group value: for its relationship with Seddon’s Fold farmhouse (NHLE 1309613), cruck-barn (NHLE 1309621), and byre (NHLE 1067301) that together with the stable comprise a rare example of a pre-1750 multi-building historic farmstead, which dates back as far as the C15 and is still in use.
History
The farm at Seddon's Fold dates to at least the mid to late C16 (the earliest reference to a member of the Seddon family living at Prestolee is from 1553). During the C18 a two storey stable block was erected, probably using the E wall of an earlier building as its rear W wall. The stable probably originally included the outshut to the S, set back from the main block and which was two storey with plain brickwork and a stone slate roof. Two first-floor C19 windows might have reused original openings and the S gable to the outshut had a blocked pointed arched opening. In the late C19 the ceiling in the main stable was lowered so that the hayloft floor cuts across the heads of the ground floor windows and door, which were infilled with brick along with the two outer first-floor pitching holes. This might mark a change from stabling to housing cattle in the principal block; the current ceiling and door height at ground floor would be inconvenient for stabling. In the late C20 or early C21 the ground floor NE corner of the stable was repaired or rebuilt, and the upper storey and roof removed from the outshut, along with a single storey S lean-to extension that had been erected earlier.
Details
Stable block, C18 with C19 and C20 alterations.
MATERIALS: principally brick, with a coursed sandstone E front and stone slate roof.
PLAN: two storeys with a three-bay N range and two bay S outshut slightly set back and now single storey. The rear wall extends to the N.
EXTERIOR: forming the western side of a farmstead also comprising house (qv), cruck-barn (qv) and byre (qv), occupying the highest point at the W end of a tongue of land formed by the westernmost meander of the River Irwell, where it is joined by the River Croal.
The principal elevation faces E. All of the openings have pointed brick arches with a keystone, and stone sills. The ground floor has a central entrance with a lower window to either side, all with brick jambs. The first floor has three lunettes. The outer lunettes and the heads of the ground floor openings are all blocked with late C19 brick, and the central lunette is missing its sill. The inner brick skin of the wall is visible at the jambs. There is a partially surviving cogged brick cornice below the eaves. To the left and set back is the outshut. At ground floor this is of plain brick with stone quoins at the left and a timber beam across the full width with metal sheet roofing above.
The left hand gable of the principal block is of brick in English Garden Wall bond with four courses of stretchers between header courses, and quoined into the stone front. There is a small opening at first floor and to the left plaster and projecting bricks indicate the location of the former first floor of the outshut. A narrow pointed opening has been inserted through the plastered area of wall and the eastern verge overhangs. The S wall has been demolished and a timber partition is set in at ground floor. To the left the incomplete end of the rear wall projects.
To the rear the ground floor is concealed by lean-to shelters* but the rear wall is of brick, in the same bond, and extends the length of the extension and main block and then continues to the N for approximately three metres, approximately one metre below the eaves of the two-storey block. To the rear of the two-storey block this wall has two very low four-light windows with stone lintels and mullions, now blocked in brick. These are divided by the rear entrance, which has removed the mullion to either side; the dimensions suggest that originally this was a continuous nine-light window.
Returning to the left a timber single storey lean-to fills the angle between the projecting wall and the two storey N gable; the latter is patched with replacement bricks at the bottom left corner.
INTERIOR: the roof contains some hewn and some sawn members and comprises a single king-post truss, bolted, with a diamond-set ridge purlin and one row of side purlins. Ceiling beams are located at door head level, necessitating the blocking of the arches above. The walls have been rendered at low level and on the south wall concrete and metal stall dividers provide for six cattle, with a drainage channel between the stalls and the passage from the entrance. The N half of the ground floor was not accessible at the time of inspection. In the SW corner of the principal block the former nine-light window is cut by the S wall, suggesting that the rear wall originally formed the front wall of an earlier building to the W. The interior of the outshut is divided into two loose-boxes with painted brick walls.
* The shelters to the rear are modern and functional and are excluded from the listing.
