Description

HIGH BICKINGTON STRAWBERRY LANE
SS 62 SW
5/113 Middlewood Farmhouse and adjoining
- stables and front garden wall

GV II

Farmhouse and adjoining farmbuildings, part of farmbuildings converted to domestic
purposes in the late C20 and the rest kept as stables. House of c.1500 with C17
alterations. Probably late C17 or C18 adjoining farmbuildings. Remodelled in the
late C20 when part of the farmbuildings were converted to domestic purposes.
Rendered over cob and stone rubble. Adjoining stable with stone rubble ground floor
and rendered cob first floor, and right-hand end of house probably mostly of stone
(see gable end). Gable-ended C20 asbestos-slate roofs (probably formerly thatched).
C20 clay-tile roof to one adjoining farmbuilding. Rendered stacks, front stacks with
tapered shafts (the result of the C20 alterations).
Plan and development: Three-room and cross-/through-passage plan, facing east (ground
falls to south). Formerly open to the roof in part at least. Hall with external
lateral stack to front, former passage and service end to left and former inner room
to right with integral lateral stack to front. C17 alterations included insertion of
floor in open hall and the addition of the stacks. The C17 alterations appear to
have also included the addition of a full-height bay to the right of the hall stack,
and enlargement of the former inner room with one-roomed addition to right (both with
front wall in line of the hall bay). Eaves possibly also raised a the same time.
Range of probably C17 farmbuildings adjoining left-hand end projecting at right
angles to front, the left-hand part stables and the right-hand part converted into a
kitchen etc. in the late C20, with the insertion of an axial stack. Probably C18
shippon adjoining right-hand end of house. Low stone walls enclosing small garden in
front of house, probably added in the C19. Two storeys.
Exterior: Asymmetrical front. Right-hand part of front wall projecting with pair of
lateral stacks. Left-hand (hall) stack has chamfered offset and slate-roofed lean-to
bread oven to left. Four first-floor C19 or C20 2-light wooden casements and 3
ground-floor C19 or C20 three-light wooden casements with wooden lintels. Small C20
ground-floor wooden casement to left. Doorway off-centre in left with C19 boarded
door, beaded wooden frame and wooden lintel. Converted farmbuilding adjoining at
right angles to left has two C20 two-light wooden casements on each floor to right
(domestic part), and stable to left has two C20 boarded loft doors with wooden
lintels and 2 ground-floor doorways with C20 stable doors and wooden lintels. Loft
doorway in left-hand gable end. Shippon adjoining right-hand end of house with
central boarded loft door and 2 small ground-floor windows flanking central boarded
door.
Low stone garden wall in front of house. Gateway to left with square gate piers.
Interior of house: Some alterations and introductions dating form the late C20
remodelling. Much of the C16 and C17 fabric and fittings remain. Hall has C17
chamfered joists spanning from front to back with straight cut stops. Trimmer in
front of stack with plain joists behind. C17 open fireplace with stone jambs,
chamfered wooden lintel and bread oven with cast-iron door. Stonework above lintel
appears to be rebuilt. Old wooden bench along right-hand side wall, running into
bay. Cream hob in right-hand side wall too. Fine probably late C16 plank and muntin
screen (said to have been introduced in the late C16) between the hall and former
passage, consisting of chamfered muntins with scroll stops, chamfered head beam and
old door with strap hinges and chamfered frame. Ground-floor room to right of hall
(former inner room) has old fireplace with wooden lintel. Remains of late-Medieval
roof consisting of 3 raised cruck trusses over lower and upper ends of hall and over
former inner room, with mortice and tenoned collars. Former threaded purlins
replaced in the late C20. Probably later truss over former lower end with straight
principals. C17 truss over C17 addition to right with straight principals and
collar. Some reused timbers in converted former farmbuildings at left-hand end.
Right-hand ground-floor end room and roofspace not inspected.
Sources: N.W. Alcock, C.B.A. Research Report No 42. Cruck Construction. An introduction
and catalogue (1981), p. 108.

Listing NGR: SS6127520980

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26595220

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

• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)