Orchard House, outbuilding range and boundary wall

Summary

Up until 1993, known as Gold Coin Farm, an 18th century vernacular house that underwent refurbishment sometime around 1800 with the creation of an upstairs reception room and a simple, but architecturally polite front elevation.

Reasons for Designation

Orchard House, historically known as Gold Coin Farm, is included on the List at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a good example of an C18 vernacular house that was refurbished in the late C18 or early C19;
* for its first-floor reception room and its simple but architecturally polite front elevation.

Historic interest:

* illustrating the vernacular approach taken by Georgian tenant farmers in gentrifying their houses.

History

The general form of the building and the survival to the rear elevation of a former mullioned window with straight chamfers, indicates that it has origins in the earlier C18. The blocked doorway to the west of the current front door was possibly the original entrance to a lobby-entry house, the current front door perhaps the entrance to a single bay cottage or attached farm building forming the east end. The whole building was improved for domestic use in the late C18 or early C19 with a unified frontage of coursed well-dressed stonework with rusticated quoins. This improvement saw the creation of an upstairs reception room that incorporated decorative plasterwork. Up until its removal around 1939, this room is reputed to have included a plaster medallion of the head of George III set above the fireplace, thought to have been copied from either a gold guinea minted prior to 1816 or a gold sovereign minted after this date, explaining the historical name of the farm (Gold Coin Farm). The fireplace and the ornate built-in cupboard that survive in this room were probably installed as part of the about 1800 refurbishment but are likely to have been architectural salvage reused from elsewhere as they are slightly too large for the spaces they occupy. The round-headed stair window to the north elevation, and the staircase it lights, is also likely to have been part of this improvement. The single-storey addition to the east end is probably slightly later, probably early C19. The roof structure possibly also dates to the improvements of about 1800 and incorporates a lot of clearly reused timbers, some possibly from a timber-framed building. This might also explain the beam to the ground floor east bay that is chamfered with run out stops only at the end adjacent to the fireplace, not at both ends.

The blocked first-floor opening to the east gable suggests an alternative interpretation for the origins of the eastern-most bay of the house. This might represent a now blocked taking-in doorway suggesting the former agricultural use for this end of the building before the 1800 improvements. In this case the house maybe a longhouse in origin: the current front door being the original main entrance and the blocked doorway being a faked opening added to give architectural balance to the elevation. The outbuilding to the rear, although probably originally providing accommodation for hens and pigs with a bit of storage, is domestic in scale. The farm buildings associated with the house were across the road to the east.

The building has clearly undergone various minor alterations since the 1800 refurbishment. The central first floor window to the front has a replaced lintel and was possibly widened in the 1950s. The other windows to the front are proportioned to hold vertical sliding sashes but currently hold horizontal sliding sashes. To the rear and west gable there are three other enlarged or inserted windows. When surveyed in 1978 there was an internal wall forming a passageway between the front door and the foot of the stairs, this being removed in the 1990s. The north room to the east bay, which is down three steps, has been converted into a shower room but was probably originally a small dairy room, the 1978 building survey also speculating that this was also the location of the original staircase for the east end bay. The timber fireplace surrounds and the iron grates to the ground floor are C20 or later reproductions in period style, the timber potentially concealing original simple stone surrounds.

The 1838 Tithe Apportionment survey mapped the house and recorded Mrs Elizabeth Sophia Lawrence as owner and Simon Pickersgill as occupier, what is now The Barns across the road to the east being the associated farm buildings. The 1841 census records Simon Pickersgill (farmer) with a wife and five sons at a single property in Galphay, the eldest son recorded as a carpenter.

Details

House, remodelled late C18 or early C19. Later alterations.

MATERIALS: south front of dressed coursed masonry, rear and sides of coursed rubble, all with evidence of former lime finish coatings. Replaced roofing and rendered chimney stacks.

PLAN. Probably originally a lobby entry house with a single bay cottage to the right (east). Now combined with the eastern front door providing direct entry to the central room, the enclosed stairs rising from the rear of this room. Single-storey scullery added early C19 to the east end.

EXTERIOR: Front, south: this is of three bays and two storeys with a single bay and storied addition to the east end. The elevation has an ashlar plinth and raised quoins with chamfered rustication. The two doorways (the western one being blocked) have monolithic lintels carved with raised detail imitating voussoirs set on impost blocks that are wider than the monolithic jambs below, the half of each block that projects beyond the span of the jamb below being tooled similar to the walling stone – keying for a lime finish coat. The upper half of the window lintels are similarly tooled. The window openings are proportioned as to accept C19 vertical sliding sash windows but at the time of inspection have replaced Yorkshire horizontal sliding sashes, each sash being of eight panes. The central window to the first floor is wider than the rest (being of three sashes) with a replaced lintel using a non-matching stone. The gables are coped and there are three chimneys to the ridge: placed at the two bay divisions and the west gable. The single-storey scullery is detailed as the rest of the frontage.

Rear, north: this is roughly quoined and largely blind. There is a single, enlarged window to the ground floor at the east end of the elevation and three windows to the upper floor – that to the east being inserted. The roughly central window is round arched with an ashlar stone surround with raised keystone and impost blocks. Its window joinery is at least partially altered, the lower sash being clearly replaced. To the right (west) there is a former two-light, straight-chamfered mullioned window that has lost its mullion to be fitted with a Yorkshire sliding sash. The single storey eastern addition has a doorway with large quoined jambs and a monolithic lintel.

East gable: this has a large, blocked opening at first floor level, now partly covered by the roof line of the scullery. This opening may be a former taking-in doorway rather than a window. Above there is a small attic window with a projecting lintel.

West gable: this is blind except for an inserted ground floor window.

INTERIOR: Ground floor: The central room has a boxed-in spine beam. To its west wall there is a fireplace (with a reproduction surround and grate), flanked by recessed cupboards. The deep reveal for the doorway through to the next room to the west is interpreted as the former lobby to the now blocked western front door (although there is no evidence of the front door internally). The western room, which has two boxed-in beams, has a fireplace with a reproduction hob grate and early C19-style timber surround. To the east of the current front door there is the kitchen which retains a large fireplace for a cooking range. To the ceiling there is a chamfered spine beam that has runout stops only to the fireplace end. The scullery in the eastern addition has iron hooks to the ceiling.

First floor: Doors on the first floor are generally four-panelled hung on H-L hinges. The central room, a formal reception room is decoratively corniced, incorporating the boxed in beam dividing the ceiling in two, the cornicing being different in the two parts of the room. The west wall has an ornate fitted cupboard to the side of a fireplace with surround and hob grate. These appear to be C18, but the surround and cupboard are slightly oversized for their positions suggesting that they were reused from elsewhere, however they are considered part of the circa 1800 remodelling.

The western bay is divided into two bedrooms, that to the south retaining a fireplace with hob grate and surround. Exposed in the ceiling of both rooms is a roughly chamfered beam. The eastern bay has altered partitions. Within the roof space the chimney flues are brick-built, the roof structure probably largely dating to the circa 1800 remodelling reusing a number of substantial earlier timbers (with redundant housings and peg holes) for purlins, wall plates and some rafters. The common rafters and some other elements are later sawn timbers.

SUBSIDUARY FEATURES:
Outbuilding range: this is to the north of the house and is single storey, built of coursed rubble with substantial dressed quoins, being roofed with pantiles. The range is divided into two units, that to the west having doorways to both north and south (both with substantial lintels and quoined jambs), the north also having a small window; the east unit has a low doorway (perhaps for pigs) and a higher opening with quoined jambs (possibly for hens) on the south side and a window on the north side. Gables are blind and plain-verged.

Boundary wall: This is stone-built, incorporating two pedestrian gateways and extends from the east gable of the outbuilding around the south side of the house.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

494221

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Other
'Gold Coin Farm, Galphay, Yorkshire' Essex Architectural Research Society (1978) (Historic building record held by the Yorkshire Vernacular Buildings Study Group)

End of official list entry

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