Description

SADDLEWORTH

1673/0/10018 HIGHER CROSS LANE
23-AUG-07 Higher Cross House

II
House. Early C19. Millstone grit, with graduated stone slate roof. Modern roof covering to single-storey extension.

PLAN: Double-depth plan, with stair set against north party wall with Higher Cross Farm (q.v.). Incorporates original external gable doorway and ground floor of south-east corner of Higher Cross Farm, with an opening cut through the farm's original exterior east wall to access a single-storey extension.

EXTERIOR: Attached to the south end of Higher Cross Farm, of two taller storeys than the farmhouse. Built of hammer-dressed millstone grit laid in water-shot coursing, with quoining to the external corners, shaped kneelers to the outer south gable wall. Two stone gable stacks, the north stack belonging to Higher Cross Farm. Front elevation faces west overlooking the valley. Tripartite window on both ground and first floors with squared stone frames. Central windows have two-over-two light hung sashes, with four-pane fixed lights to either side. To left (north) is a doorway with squared monolithic stone lintel and window with squared stone frame on first floor. Modern glazed door with early C20 coloured glass overlight. Modern four-light casement to window. Rear (west) elevation has a five-light window on the ground floor with a main lintel and a recessed inner lintel with square-faced stone mullions, chamfered to the inside, and a central opening casement. On the first floor is a similar long horizontal window, now with two stone mullions and modern casements (originally four mullions). South gable wall has two first-floor two-light windows (now blocked) with squared stone frames and recessed central mullion.

Built against the north-east corner of the house, and abutting the southern end of the east elevation of Higher Cross Farm, is a single-storey extension with an adjoining coal shed.

INTERIOR: West doorway opens into a narrow hall with staircase against left wall with flat stick balusters and ramped mahogany handrail. To right of hall are two doorways with moulded architraves. Six-panelled door to front (west) room and four-panelled door to rear (east) room. Both rooms have fireplaces to south walls, but replacement chimney-pieces. Stack side cupboards with panelled doors to rear room. Tripartite window lighting front room has moulded wooden panelling to interior incorporating reeding to mullions. Chamfered stone mullions to rear room have holes for metal saddle bars. Exposed timber beams are marked with cipher marks. To rear of entrance hall is a pantry with a lower, four-panelled door and stone-flagged floor. Beneath the staircase is the original gable doorway of Higher Cross Farm, with door rebates on its north side and original iron door pintles. On first floor is a bedroom and bathroom to the front (west), and two bedrooms to the rear (east). Recent attic conversion. Pitch pine queen post roof with two rows of staggered purlins to each side with pegged tusked tenons, and narrow ridge board.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Attached to the west elevation of the house is a coursed millstone grit garden wall with chamfered coping stones to the south wall, which incorporates gateway, and squared coping stones to stepped west wall and north return wall. Running parallel to the east elevation of the house is a coursed millstone grit retaining wall abutting the coal shed at its north end.

HISTORY: Higher Cross House is shown on an enclosure map of 1822 attached to the south end of Higher Cross Farm, dated 1746, with an added barn and byre (laithe) at its north end shown on a 1770 enclosure map. This group of buildings was built and owned by the Radcliffe family and remained in single ownership until the early C20. The use of tripartite windows in the front elevation of Higher Cross House suggests that it was built in the early C19 as similar windows were used in Uppermill, the closest nucleated habitation, in the first two decades of C19 (1-3 New Street, Uppermill q.v.). Between 1906 and 1913, when Higher Cross House was sold into separate ownership, a single-storey extension was built against the north-east corner of the house, reached through the south-east corner of Higher Cross Farm.

SOURCES: W John Smith, `Saddleworth Buildings' (1987), 57-8, 87-91119-122, 147-9.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION
Higher Cross House is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* It was built as part of a complex which together forms a striking architectural expression of the expansion of a dual economy in the later C18 of farming and domestic textile production in the Saddleworth area
* The building, which exhibits proto-industrial characteristics, was built as an early C19 extension to the south end of Higher Cross Farm, dated 1746, with a later C18 barn and byre (laithe) attached to the north end of the farm, (the latter two listed Grade II), the linear group being under single ownership until the early C20
* It is constructed of local millstone grit, hammer-dressed and laid in water-shot coursing, with shaped stone kneelers, and a graduated stone slate roof in the vernacular idiom of Saddleworth
* It incorporates long, horizontal mullion windows to its rear (east) elevation, a window type associated with domestic textile production in this neighbourhood
* Its front elevation has tripartite windows with a central sash, a polite architectural vocabulary beginning to be incorporated into local houses from the late C18 as the owners became increasingly affluent, used relatively early here given the house's isolated location
* Inside, the ground-floor layout is retained, which incorporates the original gable doorway and south-east corner of the adjoining Higher Cross Farm, enabling access into an early C20 single-storey extension
* The house retains an original staircase, doors, and representative queen post roof structure of imported pitch pine with staggered purlins with pegged tusked tenons.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26671450

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

• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990