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Description: Sowerby Croft Farmhouse, Nos. 1-11 (consecutive), Sowerby Croft and attached barn (formerly listed as Sowerby Croft, Norland House and Warehouses)

Address: Sowerby Croft Farm Barns And Cottage And 1 - 12 Sowerby Croft Sowerby Bridge Calderdale HX6 3QS

Grade: II

Group detail: Sowerby Croft Lane, Norland (west side)

Full description:
Farmhouse and attached workshop, now cottages, barn and cottages. C17, C18 and C19 with C16 origins. Thin coursed rubble and coursed squared stone; stone slate roofs. Complex development of farmhouse with rear wing linking it to parallel workshop range which projects to left; projecting forward from workshop range is barn range to centre and cottage range to left. Farmhouse (Sowerby Croft Farmhouse and Nos. 1 and 2): 2-storey, 2-bay C17 house, entrance now in right gable, with rear outshut (to No. 1) and added wing to rear left; bay added to left late C18; canted bay and archway added to far left C19 linking farmhouse to barn. Quoins to ends. C17 bays (Nos. 1 and 2): tall double-chamfered mullion windows: on ground floor of 7 lights (2 right lights with C19 doorway) and of 5 lights to right of later 2 light window; on first floor of 7 and 5 lights (flanking small C20 window). To left on each floor a blocked C18 opening with architrave. Continuous ground-floor dripmould (part removed). Chamfered gutter brackets. Shaped kneeler and coping on right. Corniced end stacks. Added bay (Sowerby Croft Farmhouse, now one with No. 3): plain stone surround doorway on right of flat faced mullion window, now 3-light, with similar 6-light window above; chamfered gutter brackets; stack to left end. Wing to rear (Nos. 3 and 11): raised and sub-divided early C19; No. 3 has doorway to right of a 5-light (now 3-light) flat faced mullion window on each floor; No. 11 (rear) has gable stack. Workshop range (Nos. 4, 5, 10, 9 and 8): probably late C18, converted to cottages mid C19. 2 storeys, 6 cells. South-east front: to right of barn range are Nos. 4 and 5. These have plain stone surrounds to openings; a blocked central first-floor taking-in door; flat faced mullion windows, most mullions removed on ground floor but on first floor of 4, 2, 4 (now 2) and 4 lights; renewed ridge stacks. No. 10 masked by barn range. To left of barn range is No. 9, now one with No. 8, with C20 porch. Rear: quoins to right of No. 9. Door of No. 10 is in blocked quoined archway. On first floor of No. 4 are two 2-light chamfered mullion windows, heightened and with mullions removed. Other openings have plain stone surrounds, windows formerly with flat faced mullions, mostly removed or renewed. Barn range: barn: C18. 5 bays. Quoins. East front, from left: C19 doorway; inserted window; 2-light window; round-arched cart entry with moulded imposts and raised keystone, blocked and with later doorway and window; later doorway and window; blocked chamfered doorway. Above cart-entry a 2-light window and to either side rectangular vents, those to right chamfered. Shaped kneeler and coping to left. On right an inserted bay links barn to workshop range and has a segmental carriage arch with part-blocked arched loading door above. Rear, from left: inserted bay, set back, has archway blocked and with 2-light window and, above it, a stepped 3-light widow. Barn, part rendered, has a blocked chamfered quoined doorway; a blocked wide chamfered doorway with inserted window to its left; a tall round-arched cart entry; an inserted window. Left return: rectangular vents. Cottage range (Nos. 6, 7 and 8): late C18, altered mid C19. West front: quoins. c1980 porches. Windows have plain stone surrounds and flat faced mullions, those to No. 6 (on right) C18, those to Nos. 7 and 8, C19. Shaped kneeler and coping to right. Interior: C17 farmhouse: in right room (No. 1) chamfered beams and moulded central spine beam on top of inserted spine wall (said to mask panelling). In left room (No. 2) a heavily-moulded basket-arched early C18 fireplace (restored) and spine beams, with small fireplace in room above. In No. 1, early C18 dog-leg stair with panelled dado to 2nd flight, column-on-vase balusters and blocked mullion and transom stair window (backing on to No. 3. This complex of buildings had associations with the cloth industry from at least 1567 and through the C18 (Kendall, pp 142, 147, 150). H P Kendall 'Sowerby Croft', Halifax Antiquarian Society, Vol 10, 1913, pp 141-155.