Ruins of High Dyke with associated outbuildings, paddocks and limekiln, High Abbotside, North Yorkshire

Summary

Ruins of a late C17 farmhouse which became a drovers’ inn in the C18, the listing including associated structures forming a complete complex. Set on the edge of the open moorland around 450m above sea level, overlooking the headwaters of the River Ure.

Description

Farmstead, formerly a drovers’ inn, late C17 origins with later additions, mainly C18, disused since the late C19 and now ruinous.

MATERIALS: Yoredale sandstone coursed rubble with millstone grit quoins and dressings. Stone slate roofing.

PLAN: central entrance, 2-cell, single depth with a stair turret at the E end of the rear (N) wall. To the E is a 2-storey, single cell addition with its own later-inserted front door. To the W it is knocked through internally to the attached barn.

EXTERIOR: the original house has been reduced to a single storey and is roofless. It is roughly quoined. The windows are simply formed, with simple monolithic lintels, and are largely blocked. The central entrance is flanked by 2-light windows, with a third, single-light window beyond to the W. The central entrance is covered by a lean-to porch with a W doorway. The rear (N) wall has just one window, a single-light to the stair turret. Filling the angle between the S wall and the E wall of the porch, there is a large stack of stone which was not noted in 1978.

The 2-storey addition to the E stands to full height and retains its stone slate roof. It is poorly bonded into the E gable of the original house. It is neatly quoined and has well-dressed monolithic lintels, sills, jambs and mullions to its two 2-light windows, the mullions being squared. The inserted front doorway is more roughly formed.

To the W of the original house is an attached barn with a large blocked opening in the S wall and ventilation slots in the N wall. It is roofless.

INTERIOR: the original house has been gutted internally and knocked through to the attached barn with the removal of its W gable wall. The E gable retains a fireplace at first floor level served by a flue that is corbelled out into the roof space of the 2-storey addition. There is a doorway through to this addition to the S of the stack on the ground floor.

The E addition has also been gutted, with the loss of its upper floor joists, but retains some plaster to the walls. The E gable retains a ground floor fireplace flanked by small cupboard recesses. Inserted into the N wall at first floor level there is a square pitching window.

SUBSIDIARY ITEMS:
Cart store: this is a lean-to to the E of the 2-storey addition with a doorway and cart entrance formed with well-dressed and margined gritstone, both facing E, opening directly onto the old road along the edge of the unenclosed moor.

Byre: attached to the W of the barn, projecting forward of the S wall of the house, is a byre which is open to the S. This is neatly quoined and still retains part of its stone slate roof.

Outbuilding: immediately to the S of the original house there are the ruins of a further farm building that is approximately square.

Limekiln: sited in the unenclosed moorland approximately 40m to the NE there are the ruins of a limekiln still retaining its drawing arch.

Paddocks: extending to the S of the buildings there is a set of small, drystone-walled paddocks.

History

The earliest part of the ruins of High Dyke is considered to date to the late C17, being a 2-cell, 1.5-storey farmhouse with a central, S facing entrance. The gable stack that corbels out of the E gable and the projection from the E end of the N wall, which would have accommodated the staircase, are both features that are characteristic of late-C17 farmhouses in the region. In the mid-to late C18, dated by the form of the windows, the farmhouse was extended with a 2-storey, heated addition to the E. The range was also extended with agricultural buildings (a barns and byre) to the W in two phases, and a porch was added to the house’s central entrance, all probably in the second half of the C18. A further detached outbuilding to the south of the house, along with the associated complex of small drystone-walled paddocks, are also thought to date to this period of expansion of the farmstead. The lean-to cart shed to the E is likely to be a little later, perhaps early C19, possibly connected with the construction of the limekiln to the NE which is likely to have been used to produce lime for use as a soil improver on the farm. The 1:10560 Ordnance Survey map surveyed 1854 shows the entire complex of buildings and paddocks, including the lime kiln. Probably in the C19, with the insertion of a new front door, the 2-storey E extension to the house is thought to have been formed into a separate cottage. It is notable that the buildings of High Dyke are built of Yoredale sandstone and millstone grit rather than the immediately locally abundant carboniferous limestone.

High Dyke is sited on the edge of the unenclosed moorland on the old road between Hawes and Kirkby Stephen. In the C18 and early C19 this was a busy packhorse and drovers’ route, with High Dyke supplementing its farming income by being a drovers’ inn. Its fortunes are thought to have declined following the construction of the turnpike road in the late 1820s in the valley below. By the 1841 census it was occupied by a farmer, Robert Fallowfield with his wife and five children. By 1851 it had ceased to be a farm, being occupied by two pauper sisters in their 70s, perhaps those reputed to have run Lunds School at High Dyke. By 1881, High Dyke had ceased to be occupied, the house probably converted into a field barn around this time, the upper floor of the E addition forming a hayloft.

High Dyke was recorded by the North Yorkshire and Cleveland Vernacular Buildings Group in 1978.

Reasons for Listing

High Dyke with its associated outbuildings, drystone walled paddocks and limekiln, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Date: for its late C17 origins, C18 additions and because it was abandoned in the late C19 so lacks significant later additions;
* Social history: as an example of a small, marginal farm set in a very bleak position at high altitude on the moorland edge, that supplemented its income by serving as a wayside inn used by drovers, packhorse trains and other travellers;
* Building archaeology: although surviving as ruins, the complex as a whole is well preserved. As standing archaeology not obscured by modern finishes and features, these ruins are of special interest in the way that their development and structure is readily readable.

External Links

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