Description

WOOLLEY

1666/7/137 THE COURTYARD
22-NOV-66 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

(Formerly listed as:
NEW ROAD
OUTBUILDING AT BEECH FARM)

II
Former farm outbuildings, late C18, altered late C20, in stone with some brick.

EXTERIOR:The buildings form a U shape, with its main front to the north-east facing the former farmhouse. One range runs parallel to and behind the front range, with a linking block between it and the right hand end of the front range. The buildings are of large well-coursed stone to the central tower, flanked by coursed rubble with some brick to the rear, and stone slate roofs. The main range (Nos 9, 10 and 11) has two storeys with a central three storey dovecote tower with quoins. The central tower has a blocked elliptical-arched cart entry with two inserted windows above. There is a second floor band with a Venetian window above of which only the central arched light is glazed. The two storey flanking blocks have four-bays of windows to the left and five to the right. The original openings have deep lintels and projecting sills, and the inserted windows match those. There is a front facing gable to the right and a hipped gable to the left. At the rear are stone quoins, and the central tower has a blocked cart entry as at the front, with two windows above. The second floor is of brick and has a Diocletian window with a lowered central light. The flanking bays match those at the front. To the right an original semi-circular arched doorway is now a window with an inserted doorway to the left and a four-light flat faced mullioned window above. There is an inserted external end stack on the right end.

The linking range (Nos 7 and 8) attached at the left end at right angles is an L-shaped building with a projecting bay to the left. It has three bays of three-light flat-faced mullioned windows and an inserted central doorway. The first floor window in the projecting bay is a dormer.

Attached at right angles to the left of this range is a further range (Nos 5 and 6). It is single storey with a pantile roof to the front and slate to the rear. The pantile roof is lower with clerestory windows above. There are seven bays of stone columns blocked with a recessed wooden wall with windows. Internally a stone wall runs longitudinally through the range, probably formerly an external wall. The range is said to have been animal sheds. It is included for group value.

HISTORY: Nos 5 to 11 The Courtyard, Woolley were formerly part of a range of farm buildings belonging to Beech Farm (now the Old Courthouse, Listed grade II). They date to the late C18 and are shown on the 1854 OS First Edition map in more or less their present form. In the late C20 the buildings were converted to form seven domestic dwellings.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
Nos 5 to 11 The Courtyard, Woolley, Wakefield, part of a former range of farm outbuildings, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architecture: the range, which faces the former farmhouse, has an impressive frontage with architectural pretensions in its central tower and Venetian window
* Planning: the buildings are a good example of a planned farmstead of the late C18
* Intactness: despite the conversion to domestic dwellings, the buildings retain their character and a number of original features, and new elements are largely in character.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26587859

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

• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)