Bradley Farm, 7, Durham Road, Wolviston, Stockton-on-Tees

Summary

Vernacular farmhouse, C18 with possible earlier origins with associated C18 and C19 farm buildings.

Description

Farm house and associated farm buildings, C18 with possible earlier origins, the house extended in the late C18 and early C19.

MATERIALS: hand-made brick, earlier sections built with thin early-C18 bricks generally laid in irregular bond; later sections with thicker, late-C18/early-C19 bricks mainly laid in English Garden Wall Bond. The front elevation is rendered. Pan tile roof.

PLAN: single depth with stairs in a rear projection. The kitchen is now in the rear lean-to, but was probably formerly in the central room of the main building.

EXTERIOR: House front (north): two storeys of five bays, the second bay from the east having the front door with a window above, the fourth bay being blind but with a ridge stack. A second ridge stack rises from the east gable end. Windows have timber architraves and projecting sills with later replacement vertical sashes. The front door is six panelled and has an oblong overlight, the doorway having a timber architrave and a shallow hood supported by corbels. There is a single-storey lean-to to the west gable with an inserted window.

House rear (south): the eastern bay is built of thin bricks and has a blocked window opening to the ground floor and an enlarged opening with modern joinery to the first floor. The next bay is covered by the projecting stair tower which has a gabled roof and is also built of thin bricks. It has an enlarged stair window. The ground floor of the rest of the rear of the building is covered by a multi-phased lean-to incorporating a doorway and a window. The first floor is blind and single phased, built of thicker bricks.

West gable: the change in brickwork shows the heightening of the west end of the house to two stories, the original gable also including a blocked attic window. The west wall of the lean-to has a blocked doorway.

East gable: this displays no evidence of heightening, but includes a blocked attic window.

INTERIOR: includes some C19 joinery including four panelled doors with architraves. On the first floor, one of the rooms is separated from the corridor running along the length of the house by a glazed timber screen. The roof space was inaccessible at the time of inspection.

SUBSIDIARY ITEMS:
Barn (on the north side of the yard): a tall, single storey barn of three bays, mainly built of thin C18 bricks, but with a rebuilt western end. On the south side (facing the yard) there is a section of plinth built of three courses of dressed stone. The uppermost three courses of brickwork step outwards to support the eaves. There is a single doorway to both the north and south sides, the south side also including a pair of ventilation slits and an inserted window. The roof structure is of sawn softwood with a pair of kingpost trusses. The roof covering retains some pan tiles.

Stable with loft (on the west side of the yard): two bays mainly built of thin C18 bricks but the loft level facing the yard having been rebuilt with thicker late-C19 bricks. The building has a single entrance, a stable doorway with overlight to the centre of the side facing the yard, with a window opening to its left. Pan tile roof.

Other farm buildings: the rest of the farm buildings are all single-storey, built of thicker late-C19 bricks, with pan tile roofs supported by kingpost roof structures. Together with the two earlier farm buildings, they form a rectangular farm yard to the south-west of the house. A separate, detached farm building lies immediately to the south.

History

No documentary history is known for Bradley Farm. Analysis of the farm house suggests that the earliest part is the eastern-most bay, with that part of the house to the west of the front door originally being single-storey, probably forming a farm range. Although the eastern-most bay appears to have been built as a two-storey building, the projecting stair tower to the rear is a later addition, probably dating to the first half of the C18. The brickwork to the rear and gable end indicates that the single-storey portion was raised to two storeys at a later date, perhaps in the second half of the C18, but possibly in the early C19. The front elevation is likely to have been regularised at the same time, but this gentrification of the street frontage may have occurred slightly later: the window openings are aligned and given matching architraves, their style suggests a date around 1800. The front elevation was probably first rendered as part of this work to cover up the evidence of alteration. The lean-to additions to the side and rear, the latter being of at least two separate phases, also appear to date to sometime in the late C18 or early C19, but the brickwork does not match that of the heightening of the house and is thus thought to have occurred as a separate series of piecemeal alterations. Internally, surviving period joinery appears to be largely C19.

The current farm yard to the west of the house also developed over time. Although the farmhouse is the primary focus of special interest, the survival of this complex of relatively modest farm buildings contributes to the understanding of the whole by illustrating the use of the site. The earliest building appears to be the barn on the north side of the yard. This is mainly built of early-C18 brickwork, but includes a section of plinth built of dressed stone which could represent the remains of an earlier building. The western end of this barn was rebuilt in the late C20. The single-storey outbuilding to its east gable was added in the early C20. The stable to the centre of the west range of the farm yard is also built of C18 brickwork, but was altered at loft level with later-C19 brickwork. The rest of the west range, along with the south and east ranges and the detached building to the south are thought to have been added to the complex around the same time in the second half of the C19, being shown on the 1:2500 map revised in 1896, and depicted differently to buildings shown on the 1:10,560 map surveyed in 1856.

Historically, much of Wolviston’s farm land was owned by the Dean and Chapter of Durham Cathedral and was generally let to farmers on short, 21 year leases. The piecemeal alterations to the farmhouse and associated buildings suggests that Bradley Farm may have been one of those occupied on short term leases, this insecurity of tenure discouraging more major investment in improvements.

Reasons for Listing

Bradley Farm, 7 Durham Road, Wolviston, a C18 farmhouse with associated C18 and C19 farm buildings, is listed Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* As a good example of a local vernacular farm house retaining associated farm buildings;
* The house retains evidence of its complex evolution through the C18 and early C19.

Historic interest:
* As a rare survival of a farm complex in a modern urbanised area, an eloquent witness to Wolviston’s pre-urban past.

External Links

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