Summary
A stone house of C16 origins, improved in the C17 and raised to two storeys in the C18.
Reasons for Designation
Wenning Hipping, a house of C16 origins which was improved in the C17 and raised to two storeys in the C18, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Historic interest:
* it is a good example of a small rural vernacular house of likely late-C16 origin.
Architectural interest:
* its various phases remain fully legible and it retains substantial original fabric, including a boulder plinth and walls to the original eaves height, corbelled chimney, and reused cruck blades;
* it retains further pre-1700 features that illustrate improving living standards in the C17, including stop-chamfered ceiling beams and joists, a stone fire surround, pair of very rare beehive ovens, and a rare and locally-distinctive king-block roof truss.
History
The extant house at Wenning Hipping has probable late-C16 origins as a cruck-framed house of a single storey with an attic in the (probably originally thatched) roof. This house was founded on a boulder plinth, with large alternating quoins to its stone walls, and a south-gable corbelled chimney; these are common in Dentdale and another is known from Lower Winskill in Langcliffe, around 7km east of Wenning. The chimney served a plastered smoke-hood which may have remained when the housebody was ceiled; although there are no witness marks for former joints between the beams of the housebody and the bressumer of the smoke-hood, the chamfer stops of these beams indicate the depth of the smoke-hood. The original entry to the house is thought to have been via the blocked doorway at the south-east corner, via a lobby screened off from the fireplace. The house stands within the historic width of the roadway, which might have been a former droving route.
During the C17 a stone chimney breast was inserted to replace the smoke-hood, with two beehive ovens (probably of different dates) and a decorative stone fireplace. Probably towards the end of the C17, the house was abutted to the south by a barn, with king-block roof trusses (a form locally distinctive to this part of the Craven area). Probably in the first half of the C18, the eaves of the house were raised and its verges built up to accommodate a shallower roof of stone flags and provide two full storeys. The barn roof was also probably raised at this time. The house’s roof trusses were made from cut-down cruck frames, probably from the original house. The notched lap joints match some of C16 date found at Lower Winskill. Mullioned windows were also inserted in the ground floor and added to the first floor.
These actions were probably undertaken by members of the Lawson family, who are recorded at Wenning from the 1660s. By 1728, when Michael Lawson died, the north end of the house included a buttery, which was partitioned from the main parlour; this was probably an original arrangement. Michael’s son James (d1769) was a blacksmith and also had farming equipment, and owned Wenning Hipping and the neighbouring Gifford’s and Wickworth farms. When James died his son John was living at Wenning Hipping. When John died in 1787 his son William also inherited the house. The house is depicted in a property document (which must date from after the mid-C18 Wenning Bridge was built, as it is also depicted). Although its perspective view of the house is at odds with the linear plan also shown on the document, it indicates that the barn had a lean-to structure to its east wall. It also shows a walled pond to the front of the house.
During the C19 a dairy outshut was added to the west of the house, causing the sill of the stair window to be raised; a door was inserted accessing the dairy from the housebody. A new doorway was also inserted in the east wall, accessing the parlour via a timber lobby (this was probably when the south-east doorway was blocked). A new doorway was also inserted in the north wall, accessing an external outbuilding (possibly a smithy) whose gable end survived until the early C21. Windows were also inserted in the first floor of the north end, lighting the bedroom above the parlour, and a chimneystack added to the north gable. The stone housebody fireplace was also partially damaged to accommodate a range, truncating the beehive ovens. Between the surveys for the Ordnance Survey (OS) 1:10,560 map of 1851 and 1:2,500 map of 1894, the barn’s eastern lean-to was demolished, along with most of the former north outbuilding, and the barn itself truncated, with its south gable wall being rebuilt in its present location, with a window whose lintel is a reused stone.
In the C20 the smaller bedroom was partitioned to create a bathroom at the top of the stairs, sharing some light from the small window on the landing. Around the 1950s a two-light mullioned window was inserted immediately north of the blocked south-east doorway. A new shallow lean-to was also added to the east face of the barn in the second half of the C20.
The house was investigated and recorded early in the C21, revealing the beehive ovens. Some restoration was also undertaken, including reinserting mullions in the central windows of the east façade, and using the recovered damaged portion of the C17 fireplace to carve replacement mantelshelf and supporting consoles.
Since 2017 some further alteration has taken place. The upper steps of the stair were turned 90 degrees to the right, and the bathroom wall brought further south (the bathroom tiling now blocking the small window formerly shared by the bathroom and the landing). The C19 dairy outshut was replaced by a stone kitchen extension. This resulted in the blocking of the opening of the south-west first floor window, and the removal of the ground floor of the west wall of the housebody, with its south-west ground floor window. It also allowed the re-lowering of the stair window to its original sill level. The sill was similarly returned to its original level in the south-west window of the parlour, which had previously been partially blocked. The north-west window of the parlour was blocked and the entrance lobby removed. Upstairs the inserted main bedroom ceiling was removed to expose the roof truss, and the doorway relocated. The walls of this room were studded out and plastered, with historic features preserved behind. The ceiling joists of the housebody were also exposed by removal of the later plaster ceiling, revealing that many had decorative stopped chamfers. The barn walls were also replastered in gypsum.
Details
A house of C16 origins, improved in the C17 and raised to two storeys in the C18.
MATERIALS: stone walls and flag roof, cast-iron rainwater goods.
PLAN: a linear range of two storeys, with a two-cell house abutted to the south by a truncated barn.
EXTERIOR: the front faces east. The house is of three bays with gable stacks, a boulder plinth and alternating quoins, and squared rubble walling. At the first floor the left gable wall steps inward and the quoins above are smaller at both angles.
The left bay has a blocked doorway and an inserted two-light mullioned window, with an C18 window above with a chamfered stone surround. The windows of the central bay are offset to the left, with C18 surrounds and replacement mullions (three-light below and two-light above). The right bay has an inserted doorway with C19 quoined jambs and C17 shaped lintel, and a vertical plank door. To the right are stacked replacement sash windows with deep lintels. The left chimney stack is corbelled and rendered. The barn is slightly set back and has similar walling but no visible plinth, and a course of shim stones corresponding to the original eaves height of the house. The left angle of the house, which includes a moulded stone, forms the right jamb of the doorway. It and the window to the left have concrete lintels.
The north end is gabled, and the ground floor largely obscured by a woodstore. At the left is a former doorway now partially blocked as a window; its lintel is shaped and bears grooves similar to tool-sharpening marks. The two first-floor windows are inserted with slender sills and lintels, and have replacement sash windows. At the right the plinth has a massive boulder.
The west wall is partially obscured at the right by the modern extension, which has stone walls and artificial stone roof flags. The left bay has a small blocked window and a larger window that has horizontally-tooled quoined jambs, with a replacement sash window; above this is a small window with splayed sill and lintel, and replacement leaded glass (now blocked inside). To the right the stair window has a replacement sill and sash window. Above the kitchen extension is a blocked former bedroom window. The barn to the right is blind.
The south wall of the barn has a blocked small gable opening (probably an owl hole) and a ground-floor window with a large squared and dressed lintel, and modern stone sill. The house gable visible above is rendered.
INTERIOR: the plan form of housebody with parlour to the north remains legible, although the west wall of the housebody now has a large opening to the kitchen. This room retains historic beams and most joists, with stepped run-out chamfers. The chimney breast retains a pair of truncated C17 beehive ovens, and the moulded jambs of a C17 fireplace; the mantel and its supports are reconstructions based on historic finds from the excavation of the floor. The plank door to the parlour also survives. The parlour also retains beams, and a historic slate hearthstone. The stone stair survives slightly altered.
Most of the principal roof timbers are historic, the principal rafters probably reused from former crucks, with notched lap joints and retaining carpenters’ marks; the structure is exposed in the main bedroom with a high collar and a tie beam bearing stave holes. Retained behind modern stud walling are historic features including a reduction in the thickness of the east wall where the eaves have been raised, and on the south wall, smoke-blackening and put-logs for purlins supporting the former smoke-hood.
The barn outshut retains a full king-block truss with queen struts (in 2023, one awaiting refixing).
