Elmsall House, and associated structures including Elmsall Barn, Sinnington, North Yorkshire

Summary

Early C19 farm house, barn and associated structures including garden walls, outbuildings and a ha ha. The house is now purely domestic and not used for farming and the barn is in separate ownership, also no longer used for farming.

Description

Farmhouse, barn and other associated structures, early C19.

MATERIALS: local, squared sandy limestone, Welsh slate roof with pantile roof to the rear range.

PLAN: originally a central-entry plan with a rear service range, the main entrance is now via a porch to the rear with a 1974 datestone.

EXTERIOR: the main range is of three bays and two storeys, the original front elevation faces south. The main range is quoined, has coped gables with shaped kneelers and stone end stacks. Windows have painted, tooled-stone lintels and sills with hornless 16 or 12 pane sashes retaining much original glass. The original main entrance is now converted to a 12 pane sash, although the porch to the rear has a 9-panelled early C19 door thought to be the original, relocated front door. The attic rooms are lit by gable-end windows and a modern rooflight to the centre of the north pitch.
The rear service range is of 1.5 stories and has a tall, multi-paned window to the east elevation, rising as a dormer, possibly converted from an original taking-in door for an attic granary, probably used historically to store valuable seed corn. The east elevation of the service range is single-storey and interconnects with a single-storey range of outbuildings extending from the east gable of the main house.

INTERIOR: the house retains most of its window shutters throughout. Doors, although re-hung, are also probably mainly original as is much of the other internal joinery with the major exception of the staircase in the main house which is modern. The south eastern ground floor room retains early C19 cornicing while cornicing in the other two reception rooms is modern. The roof structure is original with a pair of attic roof trusses supporting pegged purlins.
The rear range retains a well worn stone staircase to its attic floor.

SUBSIDIARY ITEMS
Barn: Large, early C19 barn built of very variable handmade bricks with a stone eaves course and a pantiled roof. It has a wide range of openings (both original and later insertions), some being subsequently blocked or altered. Included is a number of original ventilation openings, both stone and brick-formed. The original part of the barn includes a full height partition wall, the upper part of which is timber framed. This, along with most of the roof structure, is considered to be original. The upper floor structure to the west of this partition is thought to be early, possibly original. That to the west has clearly been altered in the C20. The single storey lean-to to the north is also thought to be early, but is in a different brick. Extensions to the east, west and south are in later brickwork. The eastern extension has an eaves course of concrete blockwork.

Outbuildings: The house is served by a number of stone-built, pantiled-roofed outbuildings.

Boundary walls and ha ha: The house's gardens are enclosed by tall, stone boundary walls with flat copings, the southern face of the wall to both east and west of the house being brick faced. The southern garden boundary is a stone-built ha ha. The stone boundary wall between the house and the former farmyard to the north is modern, but stone built.

Entrance walls: The tops of the stone coped boundary walls flanking the original entrance to the farm ramp downwards to end at ball-topped stone gate-piers.

History

Elmsall House is a former farmhouse that is thought to date to the early C19. Little is known of its history, although Bulmer's Directory lists John Harding of Elmsall House as a farmer in 1890. The first edition Ordnance Survey map (published 1856) shows the house with its rear range and outbuildings as well as a complex of farm buildings to the north, including the barn which had already been extended by this date. In the later C19 and C20, the barn underwent a number of further alterations and extensions. A number of steel framed farm buildings were also added to the farm complex in the C20; however these are not of special interest and are not included in the Listing.

The farmhouse was renovated and altered in circa 1974, converting the front door into a window and moving the main entrance to a new porch to the rear. The central stair hall was also remodelled and enlarged, with the staircase reversed. The staircase to the attic floor also probably dates to this renovation. The house and its former farmyard (including the barn) are now in separate ownerships.

Reasons for Listing

* Date: as a good example of an early C19 farmhouse;
* Architecture: for the polite architectural styling of the farm house utilising vernacular building techniques and materials, with the service range to the rear incorporating provision for agricultural storage in the attic being of particular interest;
* Subsidiary structures: the survival of historically associated structures such as Elmsall Barn, the ha ha and various stone walls all contribute to the special interest of the house.

External Links

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