Listing Text

PELTON

1387/0/10008 Pair of farm labourers' cottages at Ne
07-FEB-08 wfield Farm

GV II
Pair of semi-detached labourers' cottages 1861, part of a planned complex

MATERIALS: rubble sandstone with ashlar dressings, brick chimney and roof of welsh slate.

PLAN: 2-cell continuous out shut plan

EXTERIOR: Main (South) Elevation: each cottage has a single bay and two storeys under a pitched roof with a central brick chimney and prominent quoins and lintels. Each has an entrance containing a simple boarded door and there are single windows to the ground and first floor; the latter on the west cottage has been altered to create a pitching door. Rear (North) Elevation: each cottage has a single bay and a single storey with a cat slide roof and prominent quoins and lintels. There are entrances to each cottage (that to east with a boarded door) flanked by a single large window. Centrally placed paired doorways with boarded doors lead into larders, formerly enclosed by a small building, now demolished.

INTERIOR: each cottage has two ground floor rooms, some with fireplaces and remains of range inserts. The two rooms on the north side each have an over mantle and ladder (east cottage) and simple wooden stair (west cottage) giving access to the loft area above.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: these cottages are a component of a planned farm comprising a main farmstead and a pair of labourers' cottages. All have special interest as a related group and all are designated in Grade II. The interest of a set of brick pigsties and a small stone slaughterhouse, which also formed part of the original planned farm, has been compromised by alteration and disrepair and hence these buildings are not considered to be of special interest.

HISTORY: This pair of semi-detached farm labourers' cottages was constructed in 1861 as an integral part of a planned farm, which was itself re-modelled from a pre-existing range by an improving landowner. The planned farm is depicted on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1896 and comprises the farmstead of E-plan layout, a farmhouse, a pair of labourers' cottages and a set of pigsties. The cottages have been altered by the removal of a small projecting porch structure from the north elevation. Today the farm is 250 acres in extent and was probably larger in the past; this is large for a holding in County Durham where the tradition is of considerably smaller holdings of c. 50 to 150 acres in extent.

The period 1750-1880 is the most important for farm building development and one which witnessed major developments in both plans and building types. Changes in farming practice such as the widespread adoption of artificial fertilisers and feeds, the extension of mechanisation, the accommodation and feeding of greater numbers of livestock and the application of process-flow and scientific principles were reflected in farm planning. Courtyard layouts were developed in which the various farm processes were carefully placed in relationship to each other. Hence, barns, stables, feed stores and cattle shelters were ranged around a yard or yards and carefully placed in relation to one another in order to minimise labour and conserve manure. The earliest examples are courtyard or U-plan but from the 1820s and 1830s, extra yards made E or even double-E plans. Detached elements such as housing for the farmer and the farm labourers' were commonly also part of the integrated complex.

SOURCES: S Wade-Martins: The English Model Farm (2002); P Barnwell & Colum Giles: English Farmsteads 1750-1914 (1997); J Lake Historic Farmsteads: preliminary characterisation web document for the North East region (unpublished).

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION:
This mid C19 pair of labourers' cottages is designated in Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* They have strong Group Value with the main farmstead

* They are an integral component of a planned farm dating from one of
the most important phases in the history of farm building development

* The farm as a whole is a characteristic farm type for the north east
but a regionally distinctive survival in County Durham

* They illustrates the character and development of local farming
traditions including simple agricultural workers accommodation within
the context of the overall national patterns in farming history.