Oughtibridge Hall and Outbuilding, Oughtibridge, Sheffield

Summary

Farmhouse and outbuilding. An open hall and east cross wing of probable medieval origins (C15), a late C16 west cross wing (around 1581). Alterations to the farmhouse in the C17; a small extension of late C17 or early C18 date; re-roofing of the hall and east cross wing in the very early C18 (1701 to 1707); alterations around 1904; a renovation and repair scheme after the 1991 purchase by the present (2020) owners. Outbuilding of early C17 date (around 1623 to 1624), altered or rebuilt in the early C19 (around 1812). The converted farm building attached to the west cross wing is not of special interest.

Description

MATERIALS
The hall and east cross wing were originally timber-framed, now partially encased in grit-stone; the west cross wing originally had a gritstone ground floor and a timber-framed first floor, now partially encased in gritstone; all with stone slate roofs. The gritstone outbuilding has a stone slate roof.

PLAN
The farmhouse has an H-shaped plan with a hall, now partially full-height with two storeys at the east end, a two-storey east cross wing and a two-storey west cross wing. Attached to the east cross wing is an extension of two storeys and a cellar and a single-storey, lean-to extension incorporating a dairy cum cellar. Immediately to the north is the single-storey, rectangular outbuilding.

FARMHOUSE EXTERIOR
The farmhouse is aligned east-west with a cross-wing at each end. The south elevation faces into a farmyard, with other buildings around three sides (which do not form part of this listing). The building is constructed of stone to the ground floor with timber-framing to parts of the upper walls and stone slate roofs.

The south elevation of the hall range is of two bays with a ground floor of coursed, squared stonework with a plinth and a band of slightly-projecting slates at first-floor level. To the far left is a former quoined doorway, now a window with a squared stone lintel. To the far right is a doorway with a battened board door, a square-faced surround and stone step and to its immediate left is a similar-sized window with a squared stone lintel. The upper floor is timber-framed. A horizontal timber plate is set on top of the stone wall with a wall plate beneath the eaves. To the far left is a post and a low-springing curved brace and towards the centre is a second post with a pair of low-springing curved braces with vertical studs between and to the right. The stone slate roof has two C20 single-pitch roofed dormer windows and a stone ridge stack to the left. All the windows have two-light timber casements.

At the left-hand end the west cross wing projects a short distance. The south gable wall has exposed timber wall posts to each corner with a stonework wall between, using smaller, less well-shaped stones in roughly formed courses. The gable apex is timber-framed with a tie-beam and rafters with infill of closely-set studs and daub. To the far right of the ground floor is a doorway with a squared stone lintel and a board door. To its left is a small window with squared stone lintel and sill and timber cross frame. An external flight of stone steps runs parallel to the wall face up to a stone landing to the far left and a first-floor doorway with a board door. Adjacent to the head of the right wall post is a very small casement window. Attached to the west side wall is a separate building which is not of special interest. The short right return has timber-framing to the first-floor level with stone walling beneath. A diagonal brace rises from the corner post to the wall plate with vertical studs between a cross rail and the wall plate. The roof pitch has a modern, narrow roof light.

At the right-hand end the east cross wing projects. It has walls of coursed, squared stonework with a plinth, large quoins and plain coping to the south gable wall. The eaves level is lower to the left-hand, west side. The ground floor of the south gable wall has a central French window with adjoining casement lights all under a single squared stone lintel. Above is a large, two-light window with a central stone mullion, squared lintel and sill and timber casements. The left (west) return has a ground-floor window with a squared stone lintel and two-light timber casement. The upper floor is timber-framed with a horizontal timber plate set on top of the stone wall and closely-set studs rising to a wall plate beneath the eaves. The outer, east wall of the cross wing is stone and blind with a later two-storey extension projecting slightly off-centre. To its immediate left the cross wing has a large projecting stack with a moulded string and tall, renewed shaft. The extension is of roughly coursed rubblestone (rendered in 1976) with large, squared quoins and plain gable coping. The south side wall has a ground-floor window with a squared stone lintel and two-light timber casement. On the first floor is a small, double-chamfered window. The south gable wall has a similar small, double-chamfered window to the centre of the ground floor with a larger window above at first-floor level with a squared stone lintel and two-light timber casement. The north side has a square, stone stack to the left-hand side of the roof pitch and a small, first-floor, double-chamfered window. The ground floor and much of the right-hand side of the east wall of the cross wing are largely obscured by the catslide roof of the abutting single-storey, lean-to extension. The roof pitch of the cross wing has a modern, narrow roof light. The north gable wall of the cross wing has plain coping with a stone gable stack. To the left on the ground floor there is a vertical rectangular window with a squared stone lintel and a timber frame. The right (west) return is at the left-hand end of the north elevation of the hall range. It has a vertical rectangular window on the ground floor with a squared stone lintel and a slightly smaller window on the first floor, both with timber frames.

The north elevation of the hall range is of two bays with a ground floor of coursed, squared stonework with a plinth and a band of slightly-projecting stone slates at first-floor level. To the far left is a C20 doorway with an overlight, timber frame and flanking casement windows with projecting, tooled sills. It has a board door with decorative iron strap hinges. To the right is another C20 vertical, rectangular window with a projecting, tooled sill. To the far right is a blocked doorway with a horizontal rectangular, double-chamfered window with a moulded hood above, formerly with four lights, now two-light with a central mullion. The upper floor is timber-framed. A horizontal timber plate is set on top of the stone wall with a wall plate beneath the eaves. To the far left is part of a low-springing curved brace, towards the centre is a post with a pair of low-springing curved braces, with a second post and curved brace to the far right. Between are vertical studs, with are more closely spaced to the left. The stone slate roof has two C20 single-pitch roofed dormer windows with two-light timber casements.

At the right-hand end the west cross wing projects. The walls are constructed of roughly coursed rubblestone with large, squared quoins. The north gable apex is timber-framed with close-set studs rising from a tie-beam to the rafters. The ground floor has a large, two-light window with a square-cut stone mullion, squared lintel and sill. To the right is a doorway with a squared stone lintel, the top left corner cut into by the window lintel, and a six-panelled door. On the first floor is a central window aperture with squared stone lintel and sill. The left (east) return is blind. The roof pitch has a modern, narrow roof light.

FARMHOUSE INTERIOR
The hall range is of two bays with a full-height west bay and a floored east bay with part of the ground floor now used as a separate entrance hall and a bedroom on the first floor. The first floor rests on two chamfered spine beams supported by a large transverse beam. Behind the transverse beam is a tie-beam truss (with the first-floor wall rising immediately behind it). Moulded arch-braces rise low from wall posts to form an arc beneath the tie-beam; the arch-braces and wall posts both have an ovolo and fillet moulding. Sturdy spandrel struts from the tie-beam soffit and inner face of the posts are pegged and tenoned into the arch-braces. Above the tie-beam, closely-spaced studs rise to the principal rafters with daub infill. Curved braces rise from the wall posts to wall plates. The west truss has a tie-beam with curved arch braces rising from wall posts. The spandrels between the posts, arch-braces and tie-beam retain their original daub infill. The principal rafters relate to the re-roofing. There is a diamond ridge and a purlin to each side, with a collar with mortices towards the east end. The location of a possible four-light unglazed window lighting the dais end of the hall is indicated by close-spaced and pegged mullion mortices in the north side wall-plate, located to the east of the east truss. Beyond the west truss is the east side wall of the west cross wing, which has timber framing at first-floor level. Built against the right-hand side is a projecting chimney breast with a hood beneath the cross wing wall plate. The segmental-arched fireplace has chamfered stone jambs and voussoirs with a giant keystone. To the left of the chimneybreast is a wall post with a diagonal brace and vertical studs. A first-floor doorway (now blocked) has been cut through the framing. To the right of the chimneybreast is a wall post with a diagonal brace and diagonal struts.

The ground floor of the east cross wing has two posts with curved braces supporting a transverse beam (now visible in the stair hall off the east side of the entrance hall) demarking the original width of the cross wing. Timber framing survives at first-floor level to the west wall, visible in the south bedroom and from the bedroom in the east bay of the hall, with wall posts with curved braces and vertical studs rising between a cross-rail and the wall plate. The replacement roof has trusses of tie-beams and principal rafters with side purlins and a diamond ridge. The south bedroom has an inner timber-framed wall with vertical studs, sill and transverse beam. To the east, outer wall is a fireplace of squared stone jambs and lintel with a cast-iron grate. On the ground floor the south room has a moulded stone fireplace in the centre of the east wall. In the north-east corner is a full-height corner cupboard with fielded panel doors. The north room has a C19 grey, fossil marble mantelpiece with a cast-iron grate and hood and cheek tiles. The stair hall has a shallow stone step with a board door opening onto stone cellar steps to the right (beneath the modern staircase) down to the cellar in the two-storey extension. Two deep stone steps lead up to the east ground-floor room in the extension. Both the cellar and ground-floor room have a large transverse beam supporting joists. The first-floor room is ceiled with side purlins visible.

The west cross wing retains timber-framing on the first floor to part of the east wall (visible in the hall) and a larger section to the west wall, which is similar to the east wall with wall posts with diagonal braces and closely-spaced studs. The roof structure has two tie-beam trusses with a diamond ridge and clasped side purlins with diagonal braces. The tie-beam trusses now have two slightly raking struts, but mortices indicate that the trusses were originally infilled with closely-spaced studs. Mortices on the underside of the tie-beams also indicate that the bays were separated by close-set studding, now removed. The ground floor retains a chamfered and stopped transverse beam supported on wall posts between the south and central bays.

OUTBUILDING EXTERIOR
The rectangular outbuilding faces east onto the lane. It is constructed of squared, coursed gritstone blocks with horizontal tooling, a plinth and a stone slate roof. The east, front elevation faces east into the lane and is divided into three equal bays by two monolithic, squared stone columns. The outer bays now have modern, double plank doors and the central bay is blocked and rendered. The south gable wall has small, square ventilation holes beneath the gable and a dove-cote with two stone ledges. The north gable wall has small, square ventilation holes in the gable and a small window. The rear elevation is blind (now with a modern, lean-to greenhouse).

OUTBUILDING INTERIOR
The interior has timber wall plates and a roof structure of two king-post trusses with heavy tie-beams, expanded heads to the king post and raking struts, with a ridge board and two tusk-tenoned purlins to each side.

History

Oughtibridge Hall was built in a number of phases and has undergone various alterations since it was first built. In 1976 it was listed as having a probable C16 core. Subsequently Stanley Jones, a leading member of the Vernacular Architecture Group, who published extensively on the subject, undertook research into the building and suggested a medieval origin of around 1400 based upon its form. The building in its earliest form comprised a timber-framed open hall of two surviving bays, with a further bay or bays beyond, and a timber-framed east cross wing of two storeys and three bays. No dendrochronological (tree-ring) dating was obtainable for any of the timbers thought to be associated with the primary construction of the open hall or east cross wing, meaning that an initial construction date could not be confirmed. In the hall, while no dendrochronological date could be obtained for the east tie-beam truss with moulded arch-braces, a single stud from the stud and daub infill between the tie-beam and the principal rafters had a date of AD 1528, indicating that this timber was felled after this date depending on how much heartwood was lost.

In the C16 a west cross wing of two storeys and three bays was built with a ground floor of stone construction surmounted by an upper storey of timber framing. At first-floor level the bays were divided by close-set studding. Dendrochronological dating has indicated that eight timbers are coeval, with felling dates of, or around, AD 1581.

During the C17 the building underwent various alterations. At this time the ground floors of the hall and east wing are likely to have been encased in stone, a floor inserted at first-floor level in the open hall and a large chimney-hood and hearth built into the west bay, backing onto a cross passage at the west end of the hall, the doorways to the passage now converted to windows. Probably later in the C17 or early C18 a small, unheated, stone extension was built against the east wall of the east cross wing. It was of two storeys and a cellar. The west cross wing had the first-floor stud partitions removed at an unknown date and the upper floor used as a general storage loft. It was accessed from the new chamber at the west end of the hall and thereafter by the present external stone flight of steps against the south gable wall.

Both the open hall and the east cross wing have later roofs. Dendrochronology samples demonstrated that the re-roofing was coeval. A new technique, high-precision radiocarbon wiggle-matching analysis, subsequently gave a date of AD 1702 to 1706 (at 68% probability)
and 1701 to 1707 (at 95% probability).

A stone, open-fronted, three-bay outbuilding standing to the immediate north of the east cross wing was also subject to dendrochronology dating. Four dated timbers were coeval, felled in, or around AD 1623 and AD 1624. A further five timbers were coeval and felled in, or around, AD 1812, suggesting that it was altered, or rebuilt in the early C19 using some timbers from an earlier building.

Around 1904 major modern alterations to the hall saw the removal of the west end stack, the replacement of the upper floor in the west bay with a softwood floor and the sub-division of the east bay to form the present ground-floor entrance hall. Photographs of the south side of the house dating from around 1900 show two small windows immediately below the hall wall-plate level; these were later replaced by dormer windows. The east cross wing had a new staircase, new windows, the gables rebuilt and a single-storey, lean-to extension added to the north-east side incorporating a dairy cum cellar. The ground floor of the west cross wing was adapted to form a kitchen and the open joisted ceiling in the north bay was removed.

Following the sale of Oughtibridge Hall in 1991 a scheme of renovation and repair was initiated by the new owners, exposing many details that had previously been concealed. At the time of listing in 1976 the upper walls of the hall range were weather-boarded, but the timber-framing is now (2020) exposed. The hall also retained the softwood first floor of the west bay, which has now been removed to open up the bay to the roof. During renovations the present owner discovered a now ex-situ octagonal timber newel post with tread mortices.

Without a definitive date for the initial building of Oughtibridge Hall it is not possible to determine who the original occupants were. Medieval contenders are the Scott family, with John Scott inheriting in 1388 'all land in Ecclesfield that had descended to him upon the death of John de Leghston'. According to Revd J Eastwood (History of the Parish of Ecclesfield. London, 1862) the Wilson family were at Oughtibridge Hall by 1564. Their occupation lasted until the last decade of the C17, and they must have carried out many of the major improvements. John Harrison’s Survey of the Manor of Sheffield in 1637 recorded that Thomas Wilson held a tenement called 'Ughtibridge Hall with a dwellinghouse of 4 bayes a beast house adjoining of 2 bays a heyhouse adjoining of 2 bayes a barn of 3 bayes, an Oxhouse of 3 bays, a henhouse of one bay a wainehouse of 2 bays a kiln of one bay a ffold 2 orchards a garden and a croft lyinge next ye Hall green and Ughtibridge Lane North …'. A will dated 1703 recorded that the owner was then Richard Morton; he was buried in Bradfield on 11 June 1711.

Reasons for Listing

Oughtibridge Hall, a hall and east cross wing of probable medieval origins (C15) with a late-C16 (around 1581) west cross wing, C17 alterations, a small late-C17 or early-C18 extension, and alterations of around 1904, with a renovation and repair scheme after 1991, also an outbuilding of early C17 date (around 1623 to 1624), altered or rebuilt in the early C19 (around 1812), is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* originating as an open hall and cross wing, probably during the C15;

* as an evolved vernacular building with distinct phases demonstrating its social development and changes in living standards over time;

* the building uses local building materials, initially being a timber-framed open hall and cross wing, with a later cross wing of stone and timber-framed construction, and then partly encased in local gritstone, with stone slate roofs, in the C17;

* the interior retains timber framing and historic roof structures to the upper floors of the two cross wings and the partially open hall, which has two roof trusses, the east truss notable for the moulded arch-braces rising particularly low from wall posts to form an arc beneath the tie-beam.

Historic interest:

* the form of Oughtibridge Hall demonstrates the regional characteristics of rural vernacular houses in the area over a long timescale.

Group value:

* Oughtibridge Hall and outbuilding have group value due to their proximity with the vernacular former cowhouse approximately 25 metres to the south-east of the hall, which is also listed at Grade II.

External Links

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