Old House and Attached Barn, Thornhill Farm, Goathland, North Yorkshire

Description

GOATHLAND

1320/0/10013 OLD HOUSE AND ATTACHED BARN, THORNHILL
23-JAN-09 FARM

II
Gentry house converted for agricultural use. C17 cruck-framed house rebuilt in stone 1699, converted to agricultural use probably in C18. Byre and hay loft added C18 or early C19, roof of main building raised after 1868. At time of survey, under consideration for conversion back into residential use.

MATERIALS
Rust coloured local oolitic sandstone squared and laid to courses, well finished on the north elevation, and around original openings on south elevation, rougher elsewhere. Blockier, greyer local sandstone used for the later byre and raised eaves. Replacement roof cover not of special interest.

PLAN
Three cell with central cross passage open to the middle room to the west, the cross passage and opposed entrances slightly off-set to the east. End rooms heated and with chambers above probably linked across the unheated central room via a gallery on the north side. Alterations for agricultural use included the insertion of two new cross passages at either end of the building and the insertion of upper floor taking in-doors. A byre with hay loft over was also added to the west end of the original house. The later open fronted barn attached to the west of the byre is not of special interest and is not included in this designation.

EXTERIOR
South elevation: Front doorway slightly west of centre with a well dressed monolithic lintel and long-and-short jambs, the reveal being chamfered and the lintel inscribed
P
IE
1699
(initials thought to be for John and Elizabeth, and Pearson). This doorway was blocked with later stonework at the time of the inspection. To the east there is a well preserved 2 light, chamfered stone mullioned window with a similar window above lighting the central room. Evidence of two further similar windows survive which would have lit the rooms to either side, both partly cut by later inserted doorways, the window to the west probably being of 3 lights. At the time of the inspection the western doorway was partially blocked and the eastern one totally blocked with later stonework. The byre has a blocked ground floor door and a pair of upper windows in the position of a former inserted loading door served by a ramp said to have been added in the early C20.

North elevation: Near central doorway similar to that of the south elevation but with a lighter lintel with no inscription and only partially blocked at the time of inspection. To the east there is a 2 light mullioned window missing its central mullion with evidence of a second window to the west cut by an inserted door which uses a mullioned window cill or lintel for its lintel. A similarly inserted doorway lies to the east. At either end of the elevation is a small, square, single light window formed in dressed chamfered stonework. These ground floor windows are interpreted as fire windows. Similar small windows, slightly offset towards the centre, light the upper floor. Immediately above the central doorway there is evidence of another upper floor opening that appears to have been a pitching window in the 1868 photograph. The elevation also has 2 taking-in doors that were inserted when the eaves were raised after 1868. The byre has two openings: a doorway with a taking-in door directly above, the stone lintel between them probably being reused from elsewhere as it has two square sockets.

East gable: The upper part has been rebuilt with the raising of the roof and is finished with stone coping supported by plain kneelers. The upper floor has a near central inserted window. Below there are two blocked openings, a possible single light window to the south and a low roughly arched opening suggestive of an external bread oven or an opening for a pig feed trough.

West gable (house, internal to byre): This has a single light window (similar to the fire windows), high up on the north side of the original gable. Below, at first floor level, there is an inserted doorway.

West gable (byre): This has a coped gable with plain kneelers and two openings, both loading doorways.

INTERIOR
The house retains the lower stubs of two pairs of cruck blades embedded in the walling dividing the house into 3 bays. Just east of the line of the western crucks there is a raised stone cill that is channelled and socketed for a timber partition along the western side of the cross passage. Other patterning in the original flagstone floor is suggestive of other internal arrangements. There has been at least some later re-arrangement of the flagstone floor towards either end of the building with the creation of lowered walkways linking the inserted opposed doorways. Such re-arrangement may conceal evidence for the gable end hearth places implied by the fire windows. Between the cruck blades on the north wall there is a series of stout, sawn off joists with no corresponding sockets in the south wall and thus interpreted as for a gallery linking upper chambers at either end of the building. The floor structure at the time of the site inspection was a later insert employing re-used timber, some of which may be of interest. There is also at least one fragment of cruck framing built into the wall: the cruck saddle incorporated into the post 1868 walling high in the south wall. This and other evidence for the early structure and arrangement of the house contributes to the special interest of the building, even when no longer in situ. The post 1868 roof structure of king post trusses in sawn and metal pinned timber is not of special interest.

The interior of the byre includes the original west gable of the house (see above). The byre also retains a number of re-used cruck framing timbers, both in its roof structure and as internal lintels to openings. The roof structure has a central truss which re-uses a pair of cruck blades for principal rafters and a ridge-tree for its tie beam. The way that the timber has been re-used is of special interest in addition to the interest that can be potentially derived from reconstructing the original form of the cruck framing.

SUBSIDARY ITEM
On the north side of the building there is a stone flagged platform which contributes to the setting of the house and may be a contemporary structure linked to the original building.

HISTORY
A fragmentary inventory dated 1672 for John Pearson of Goathland, documents his house as having a hall, kitchen, great and little parlours (possibly a single subdivided room) and two upstairs chambers. This John Pearson was a gentleman and his inventory included few items associated with farming. The lower parts of two cruck frames that are embedded in the walls of the Old House may be the remains of the building included in this inventory. The reused cruck framing timbers mainly concentrated in the later byre may also be from this earlier building. The stone built Old House is dated to 1699 by the inscribed lintel for the front door which also caries the initials of John and Elizabeth Pearson (this John probably being the son or grandson of the John Pearson of 1672). As originally built, this house would effectively fit the description in the inventory (with three ground floor rooms and two upper chambers tucked largely into the roof space at either end), so it may have been an in situ rebuild in stonework of an earlier timber framed house. However it is possible that the house was never completed as a domestic building as there is little indication of hearth places or other internal domestic fittings beyond the stone flagged floor with its channelled cill. There is also documentary evidence for a marked decline in the fortunes of the Pearson family: An inventory of 1719 for another John Pearson is almost entirely agricultural in nature and Pearson is described as a yeoman rather than as a gentleman. Consequently it is possible that the Old House was turned over to agricultural use at a relatively early date, prompting a series of alterations over the years. It is possible that the house retained a cruck framed roof into the late C19: a photograph dated 1868 shows the building with a thatched roof that has a lower eaves line and a steeper pitch than the current roof. However the attached byre to the east, also shown in the photograph and thought to be an C18 addition, includes a number of cruck frame timbers in its structure that are presumed to have come from the Old House.

SOURCES
Barry Harrison, 2008, "Thornhill Farm, Goathland, North Yorkshire: Draft report on agricultural building (former house)" typescript report for the Yorkshire Vernacular Buildings Study Group
Photograph of sheep clipping day at John Peirson's Thornhill Farm, 1898, plate 53 in Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby, 1990, "Life and tradition in the moorlands of north east Yorkshire"
Raymond Hayes and John Rutter, 1972 "Cruck framed buildings in Ryedale and Eskdale" Scarborough District Archaeological Research Report no. 8 pp 46 & 49
RCHME, no date (1980s?), "Thorn Hill House" Lesser secular monuments building record North Yorkshire no. 48 / 57483

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION

The Old House with attached byre at Thornhill Farm is designated at grade II for the following principal reasons:

* It retains extensive evidence of the form and design of a gentleman's house of 1699.
* It includes remains of an earlier cruck framed building, possibly that detailed in an inventory of 1672, including both fragments encased in later stonework and reused timbers in the roof structure of the attached byre.
* It is a good example of a vernacular building that has evolved and been adapted to new uses over the centuries, the alterations being incremental rather than the result of wholesale re-building.
* The design is relatively unusual for the C17 in the North York Moors: a house where both north and south elevations were given an architectural treatment and where the central open hall appears to have been unheated but was flanked by heated rooms with gable end hearth positions, each with a chamber above.

Reasons for Listing

The Old House with attached byre at Thornhill Farm is designated for listing at grade II for the following principal reasons:

External Links

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