Description

SKELMERSDALE

SD50NW ELMERS GREEN LANE
783-1/2/10 (East side)
Felton's Farmhouse

GV II

Farmhouse, now house. Probably later C16 or very early C17,
reduced and remodelled with addition in C18, and subsequently
altered. Timber-frame subsequently clad with sandstone and
rendered, with scored stucco to the front and right-hand end,
roofs of C20 interlocking concrete tiles, brick chimneys.
Double-pile plan formed by a single-depth main range (reduced
to 2 wide bays flanking a central chimney stack) with a
secondary range added to the rear.
The 2-storey 2-window front range has a C20 gabled stone porch
at the left end, a 2-light casement window to the first bay, 2
similar casements to the 2nd bay, one oblong 3-light casement
at 1st floor of each bay, a chimney on the centre of the ridge
and another at the right-hand gable. The lower 2-storey
3-window C18 range at the rear has a C20 gabled porch offset
to the right and small 2-light casements on both floors.
The principal features of interest are in the INTERIOR, where
the rear wall of the front range is entirely timber-framed and
the wall-plate of the front wall shows that this also is (or
was) similarly timber-framed. The framing of the rear wall is
of 2:1:2 structural bays, with a stone plinth, timber sill,
full-height wall-posts, one intermediate rail and straight
angle-braces to the wall-plate. The front wall-plate has pairs
of peg holes for a similar series of posts (which may be
concealed in the masonry).
The narrower centre bay, perhaps formerly a smoke-bay,
contains the chimney stack which has a stone heck near to the
rear wall, with a chamfered end facing into the west room (the
1st bay) but the top part rebuilt and the bressumer or stone
arch of the original fireplace replaced by a beam at ceiling
level.
At ground floor, each main bay has a chamfered lateral beam,
that in the 1st bay with broach stops. At 1st floor the
chimney stack is framed by the roof trusses (see below); the
2nd bay has a large stone Tudor-arched chamber fireplace
flanked by wooden Tudor-arched doorways built into the
cross-frame, that to the right probably indicating that access
to this room was by a staircase on the north side of the
stack, and that to the left, which is much smaller and has a
board door, opening into the void on the south side of the
stack.
The trusses, of principal-rafter type with raked struts, have
carpenter's marks (CCCC and CCC on the east truss, IIII and
III on the west truss), straight wind-braces to trenched
over-lapped purlins on the north side and vacant wind-brace
housings on the south side; the tie-beam of the west truss has
been severed at the north end to make a small doorway into 1st
bay, but remains of a plank panelled partition to the side of
this indicate that the frame was formerly closed in this
position; and this bay has a stone flagged floor.
HISTORY: the carpenter's marks indicate that the timber-framed
range was formerly longer; this fact, and the quality of the
framing, suggest that this was probably the largest and oldest
of the surviving farmhouses at Elmers Green.
Forms a group with the barn approx 20 metres north (qv).

Listing NGR: SD5011206583

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26514144

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

• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback