Description

LAWSHALL

922/0/10070 MELFORD ROAD
18-JAN-06 Dales Farmhouse

II
House. Probably late C16, with later alterations. Plastered and colourwashed timber-frame with pantile roof, hipped to right end, and brick ridge and rear wing projecting stacks. Above the ridge line the ridge stack has been rebuilt late C20. 3-unit plan with wing to rear right and C20 extensions on right end. Windows are all C20 with leaded lights and those to ground floor nearly all small oriels supported on brackets and with pentice roofs. Front is a 3-window range at ground floor of 2-light casements. C20 gabled porch and door to right. 2-light casement over and a 2-light gabled dormer. Left end has 4-light oriel with 4-light casement over and right end has C20 single-storey lean- to extensions and various leaded casements and doors. Rear has further 4-light and 2-light oriels, door, and 3-light and 2-light casements over. Rear wing has a larger 3-light oriel with 2-light dormer over.
INTERIOR.
Much close-studded framing visible. The central room has chamfered bridging beam with ogee stops to chamfers supported on similarly chamfered cross beam above fireplace and the cross beam of the close-studded partition. Wide heavy ceiling joists. Large open fireplace with bressumer with similar stops to chamfer. Surface brickwork inside reworked. Left room has similar framing and an off-centre cross beam which may have been part of a partition. Right room has close-studded framing, the heavy joists supported on a cross beam and the partition wall. Heavy framing also in the rear wing though the ground floor wall between the wing and the C20 extension has been removed. Similar bridging beam and heavy joists. Framing, wall plates and jowled main posts visible on the first floor with diagonal braces on the right end. In the wing the framing survives to wall plate level but the roof has been replaced C20 following a fire. However in the main range more of the roof survives. In the hipped section to right the heavy rafters mostly survive to collar level and in the central section a reasonable amount survived the fire including heavy rafters, some cut off below collar level, and others surviving together with a collar, a purlin and a curved windbrace. The rest of the roof in this section is C20, but the complete roof survives beyond the stack to left and is of the coupled rafter type with collars. The first floor ceiling in this part is above the eaves and is carried on a bridging beam the chamfers with ogee stops. The support above the window and the more widely spaced joists suggest this could be a later insertion. The central section of the first floor is plastered but from the roof space the massive brick stack is visible with the framing of the bedroom wall in front of it.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE.
This house survives with much of the close studded timber frame intact together with a large open fireplace and stack. All the wall framing survives in the main range together with a third of the roof complete and two-thirds mostly to collar level. The wall framing mostly survives in the rear wing. The ceiling framing survives in the main range on both floors and to the ground floor in the rear wing. The close studding and heavy ceiling joists suggest a late C16 date.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26670723

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy