Description

451/0/10011
03-NOV-10

MELTON HIGH STREET
WATH-UPON-DEARNE
(North side)
HIGHFIELD FARM

II

Farm complex of farmhouse, stable, hayloft and granary range, threshing barn and cowhouse, cowhouse and hayloft range, cart shed, granary and pigeon loft range. c.1750-1773-4, and c.1800-1855. Four buildings were built for the second Marquis of Rockingham. One is later, built for the Fitzwilliam family.

MATERIALS: Sandstone, with stone slate and Welsh slate roofs.

PLAN: A threshing barn and cowhouse stands on the north side of a small yard. On the west side is a range containing stables on the ground floor with hayloft and granary over, on the east side is a range containing cowhouses on the ground floor and hayloft over, and on the south side is the farmhouse, with two, possibly three, barrel-vaulted cellars beneath the rear service rooms. Abutting the south side of the east range is a later range with cart sheds on the ground floor and granary and pigeon loft on the first floor.

EXTERIOR:
Farmhouse: Built on the south side of the yard with the front elevation facing south towards the road. Now three bays and two storeys, but originally two and a half storeys. Built of roughly coursed rubble stone, with a plinth, quoins to the corners, double-pitched roof, with slates to the front, and slates and stone slates to the rear, and two brick gable stacks. Central doorway with modern lean-to enclosed porch. To each side is a wide window with two two-light timber sashes with central timber mullion. Monolithic stone lintels wider than present apertures. Towards left and right corners are two blocked doorways; that to the left has stone jambs with monolithic stone lintel with curved corners to the door aperture, that to the right has stone jambs and a rectangular stone lintel (both blocked with coursed stonework). On the first floor are two windows with two-light sashes, between is a small central stair window, now blocked. Above the windows the blocking for the two attic windows is visible.
To rear is a lower two-storey wing to the left (W) side, and a shorter single-storey dairy outshot to the right (E) side, with a modern first-floor brick extension (not of special interest). Quoining to the corners.

Cottage: Attached to the west side of the farmhouse and stepped slightly back. Single bay with a two-light sash window on each floor.

Stable, Hayloft and Granary Range: Built on the west side of the yard. Two storeys built of roughly coursed rubble stone with corner quoins. Double-pitched roof with corrugated asbestos sheeting to front and stone slates to rear. Ground floor has from the left a blocked doorway, square window, wide doorway, square window formerly a doorway, square window, wide doorway, blocked doorway, square window, and wide doorway. The apertures have monolithic stone lintels; the blocked doorways have no lintels. The windows have multi-pane frames with bottom-hinged, inward-opening lower lights. The doorways have split stable doors. On the first floor, from the left, is a taking-in door, a blocked square window, a second taking-in door, and a square window with multi-pane timber frame. There are also a number of blocked ventilation slits. There is a flight of external stone steps against the north gable wall up to a first-floor doorway, and also giving access to the first floor of the adjacent threshing barn.

Threshing Barn and Cowhouse: Eight-bay barn built on the north side of the yard of roughly coursed rubble stone with corner quoins, and double-pitched roof, now with concrete tiles. First-floor doorway to left. Opposing wide rectangular threshing doorways set off-centre towards left (W) end. Quoining to jambs and timber lintels. Blocked ventilation slits. (Pig sties and pig rearing unit attached to ground floor on right (E) of threshing door are not of special interest). Rear (N) elevation has blocked ground-floor doorway to left (E) end; at first-floor level from the left are a blocked square window, a square window partially obscured by a modern shed, the threshing doorway, partially infilled, and a blocked square window. (Modern shed abutting left (E) side and milking shed from second half of C19 attached to right (W) side are not of special interest).

Cowhouse and Hayloft Range: Built on the east side of the yard. Two storeys built of roughly coursed rubble stone with corner quoins. Double-pitched roof of slates and stone slates. Ground floor has from left a former wide doorway with monolithic stone lintel later partially blocked to form a window with vertical iron bars, a wide doorway with a double timber lintel, a square window, a doorway, and a second square window, all with monolithic stone lintels. The doorways have split stable doors, and the square windows have multi-pane frames with bottom-hinged, inward-opening lower lights. On the first floor, from the left, a taking-in door, and two square windows with wooden shutters. The first floor is reached by a flight of stone steps against the south gable wall which were originally external, but are now within the abutting cart shed building.

Cart Shed, Granary and Pigeon Loft: Built of coursed rubble stone with a double-pitched stone slate roof. From the left is a doorway with two shallow steps to the side, a stone lintel and plank door. Immediately beside it is a narrow inserted doorway with stone lintel. To the centre and right are two wide segmental-arched cart openings with ashlar voussoirs and a central square stone pier. On the first floor, from the left, are two square windows both with wooden frames with a row of fixed upper lights over vertical ventilation slats. To the right (S) end is a square aperture, now blocked with coursed stonework, with a wide projecting stone ledge below. A similar aperture with a projecting ledge is located at the apex of the south gable wall.

INTERIOR:
Farmhouse: Two main rooms separated by central entrance hall with stone cross wall to east side and partition wall to west side, to rear are kitchen and former dairy, now subdivided. Three original first-floor rooms, and plastered-out attic room to east side of stone cross wall, which rises to ridge post. Beneath the service rooms are two, or probably three, barrel-vaulted stone cellars originally accessed by a flight of stone steps beneath the timber staircase, now reached by a flight of stone steps from the adjoining cottage. Features of note include boxed-in cross beams in ground and first floor rooms, central dog-leg staircase with half landings which rises to attic level; stick balusters and moulded, ramped handrail, boxed-in up to first-floor level, a number of original doors with two equal fielded panels, stone slab tables in the cellars. Roof structure of hewn timber, with principal tie-beam trusses, wall plates, joists, tusk tenoned purlins, and diamond ridge post. The wing has a similar ridge post, purlins and joists.

Stable, Hayloft and Granary Range: Three unevenly sized ground-floor rooms with stone cross walls, hayloft and separate granary to first floor. Features of note include two wall niches in largest ground-floor room at south end, and granary with plastered walls at north end of first floor. Roof structure of hewn timber with three original principal tie-beam trusses

Threshing Barn and Cowhouse: The two western bays have timber floor for a hayloft over, while the three eastern bays are a former cowhouse with timber floor over with stone cross wall at west end. Features of note include a stone flag threshing floor between the threshing doors, a brick set floor in the two western bays, and seven original hewn principal tie-beam trusses with stop chamfered tie beams, tusk tenoned purlins, joists, and diamond ridge post.

Cowhouse and Hayloft Range: Two ground-floor rooms separated by stone cross wall, and hayloft over with blocked ventilation slits. Features of note include at number of wall niches on the ground floor and three principal tie-beam trusses with tusk-tenoned purlins and diamond ridge post.

Cart Shed, Granary, and Pigeon Loft: Narrow bay with stone cross wall to north end housing former external steps of adjacent Cowhouse and Hayloft Range, along with two interconnected cart bays (now with modern partition, and modern storage room in south-east corner, neither of special interest). First-floor granary with plastered walls, with the southern end originally partitioned to form a pigeon loft. Cross wall now removed, but features of note include nest boxes built of brick against the external walls. Three machine-sawn king-post trusses with raking struts and iron bolts.

HISTORY: This farm complex is first depicted on William Fairbank's Township Map of Brampton Brierley, dated 1773-4 when it is shown with four buildings ranged round a yard. At this time the farm was tenanted to a William Tricket, who farmed 75 acres, and the landowner was the second Marquis of Rockingham. Rockingham, whose residence was the nearby Wentworth Woodhouse estate, was a particularly important landowner in the second half of C18. Between 1750 and 1782 his estate became one of the most progressive in England, with many of his farms providing food for the workers in his collieries and other industrial enterprises. The farmstead here is planned, laid out according to the principles of Palladian villa-farms in Palladio's 'Quattro Libri dell'Architectura', which was first published in English in 1720. The most important building was the threshing barn, placed on the north side of the yard to provide warmth and shelter to the south, on the east and west sides were the cattle sheds and stables, and the house was placed on the south side, its front typically facing away from the yard. Highfield Farm is a small example of a planned farmstead; many C18 commentators thought that building planned farmsteads to serve small acreages was not worth the investment, but Rockingham apparently disagreed, meaning this complex is of interest precisely because of its relative modesty. The cart shed, granary and pigeon loft was added to the yard in the first half of C19.

SOURCES: Scurfield, C, Highfield Farm, West Melton, Rotherham, South Yorkshire: An Archaeological Building Record, CS Archaeology Project No. 045, November 2009
Wade Martins, S, The English Model Farm, Building the Agricultural Ideal, 1700-1914 (2002), 43, 46, 48, 223.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
The farmhouse, the threshing barn and cowhouse, the stable, granary and hayloft range, and the cow house and hayloft range of the third quarter of C18, and the cart shed, granary, and pigeon loft range of the first half of C19, at Highfield Farm, West Melton, are designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Date: Map evidence demonstrates that all except one of these buildings pre-dates 1773-4 while the cart shed, granary and pigeon loft range dates from the first half of C19; the period 1750-1840 was when English Agriculture was the most advanced in the world
* Historic Interest: As an early planned farmstead on a small scale built for a tenant farmer by the Marquis of Rockingham, a particularly important landowner whose estate became one of the most progressive in England between 1750 and 1782 with many of his farms providing food for the workers in his collieries and other industrial enterprises
* Group Value: Despite lacking the precise formality of layout and architectural pretensions of better-known and larger C18 planned farmsteads, Highfield Farm nevertheless follows the principles of a Palladian villa-farm, with a threshing barn placed on the north of the yard to provide warmth and shelter to the south, cattle sheds and stables on the east and west sides, and house on the south side, its front typically facing away from the yard
* Architectural Interest: The earlier buildings have a uniformity of appearance through the use of the same roughly coursed sandstone with large quoin stones to the corners, and there is a great similarity in the roof constructions of hewn timbers. The barn retains its stone flag threshing floor, and the house retains a number of two panel fielded doors, staircase, cellars, and plastered attic room. The later cart shed survives largely intact and includes a first-floor granary and pigeon loft with rows of purpose-built nest boxes
* Development: The cart shed, granary, and pigeon loft range is a large multi-purpose building, also built of stone, which demonstrates a development of, and further investment in, the farm by the landowner

Reasons for Listing

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External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26674570

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.

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