Summary
Stone-built double-pile house of c.1730, remodelled in a Palladian style in 1777 and with possible C17 features, mid-and-late-C19 alterations and a good group of ancillary structures.
Reasons for Designation
Heyroyd, a house of c.1730 remodelled in 1777, and with possible C17 features and mid-and-late-C19 alterations, is listed in Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Date and rarity: as a house dating from at least the early C18 and of substantially unaltered form since remodelling and refronting in 1777;
* Quality of design, materials and craftsmanship: readily apparent in the exterior elevations and a number of ancillary buildings and internal features, ranging in date from the 1680s to the late C19;
* Intactness: as a house whose good quality, but multi-period, interior and curtilage are appropriately recognised by inclusion in Grade II.
History
The earliest known reference to Heyroyd in 1725 names as its owner John Hargreaves, then recently elevated from yeoman to gentry status. It seems likely that he was responsible for the current form of the house. In 1731 he passed the property to his nephew John Hanson. In 1762 it was sold to John Wilson, tallow chandler, who obtained a mortgage, presumably for the refronting and remodelling, which he paid off in 1777, the date found on the rain hoppers. This phase seems to have involved a change of orientation, since the rear door surround and windows appear more suitable to a front elevation. John bequeathed it in 1788 to his son James, and on James’s death in the 1840s the house (then tenanted by Richard Sagar) was auctioned and bought by Robert Sutcliffe of Red Lees in Cliviger; Richard Sagar bought it in 1875.
The kitchen features, cellar and rear door are probably the oldest features in the house and might all predate the early C18. The low proportions and recessed and chamfered mullion windows at the rear suggest a date of c1730. The off-centre rear door suggests a house with a cross-passage, and the adjacent window is more likely to have lit a hall than stairs. In Lancashire C17 houses often had a hall with in-line ends rather than crosswings. The upper lights of the gable stair window appear to be an alteration; if the graffito is believed then this was prior to 1777, and it might be that the window belongs to the c1730 phase but perhaps reused earlier elements at the lower level. The extra external skin to the front half of this gable, presumably to address damp penetration by the prevailing weather, must surely have been added after such pains were taken to achieve symmetry to the front elevation, although perhaps after only a short time. An 1841 plan shows subdivision to a rear bedroom and the room below, and names the largest bedroom as the ‘best lodging room’, indicating declining social status. Engravings of 1841 and 1875 show the house as it is now, but with the cottage still detached and an earlier, smaller service wing. They also show on plan and partial elevation a lower two-storey building to the E, apparently solid-walled and with an attached dovecote, and with two rear outshuts. The OS six-inch map surveyed 1891-3 shows the house linked to this building by a small block, presumably concealed by the screen wall still present to the E of the house; the attached building, but not the linking block, was demolished before the survey for the 1909-10 edition. It is possible that this was an earlier house, and the source of features like the studded door, but it is more likely to have been a farm building, and the c1730 phase a remodelling or replacement of an earlier house.
The cottage has been restored in the C21 and sympathetic repairs have also been carried out to the house.
Details
House of c.1730 remodelled in a Palladian style in 1777, architect unknown, with possible C17 features and with mid-and-late-C19 alterations.
MATERIALS: watershot regularly-coursed gritstone with blue slate roof.
PLAN: double-pile house of two storeys plus an attic with gable stacks; central hall and stair with four main rooms per floor, and secondary axial stair, plus a two-storey service wing, and attached outbuilding.
Two-up and two-down cottage to rear, now attached.
Across a setted rear yard, a combined carriage-house and stable with hayloft.
DESCRIPTION: set back from the old road from Colne to Skipton, with boundary walls to the road.
HOUSE
EXTERIOR: the symmetrical five-bay S front has rusticated alternating quoins, a Diocletian window in a closed pediment spanning the central three bays, and bracketed cornices. The windows are twelve-pane sashes without horns, the surrounds plain and square with stooled sills. The six-panelled door has a semi-circular arched head with Gothick fanlight, and surround of Tuscan columns supporting an open pediment. To the right is a C19 single-storey-height wall with a cornice and a central arched window. To the left, set back to the centre-line, is the front of a late-C19 replacement service wing, a low two storeys with side-gable and stack; the design echoes the house, with bracketed cornice, rusticated quoins and square surrounds and mullions to a tripartite sash window on each floor. The left hand return (W elevation) of the house has a full height central stair-window with chamfered sills and mullions to the lower two lights and the sill of the light above this, but above that less-chamfered sills and recessed mullions. To the right and below this is an extra skin of stonework with extended ground-floor sill, and lead hopper and downpipe dated 1777 with the initials I W E (for John Wilson and his wife). The W wall of the extension has a sash at each floor, and a similar hopper and pipe; these might be a C19 copy, but might also be the originals from the E end of the house front. Both gables have kneelers projecting over the cornice. The rear elevation is obscured to the right at ground floor by a single-storey pantry formed by covering the passage between the extension and the cottage; above this are the three first-floor sashes, the central one smaller. The house has (left and right) three-light recessed chamfered mullioned windows to both floors (now with wooden casements); between these are (left) a composite window comprising mullioned-and-transomed window of four leaded lights and Venetian window above with central sash with Gothick glazing bars and etched and coloured glass, and (right) studded oak plank door (probably C17) with a surround of square columns and closed pediment. The alternating quoins are rough-dressed like the stone. Stone corbels for a box gutter now support an ogee cast trough*, with central downpipe* and hopper* dated 2008. The right return (E elevation) has a central two-light mullioned gable window and is partially obscured at ground floor by an attached single-storey garage* to the left. A plastic hopper* and downpipe* serve the front gutter.
INTERIOR: well-preserved, with fittings from the late-C17 to the late-C19, including glazed timber vestibule and elaborate cast-iron hall radiator cover, and in most rooms doors and architraves, skirting, shutters, cornices and fireplaces. The original kitchen has a window seat, large fireplace reportedly with now-concealed bressumer beam, and over-mantel of reused C17 carving; there is also timber framework in the walls, probably originally to secure panelling. The cellar door also probably predates 1730, although the vault, niches and mullioned window are probably of that period. The NE ground-floor room has a wall cupboard with a door with H-hinges that may be reused early C18 panelling, as well as a C19 wall-safe and dresser. The SE dining room, probably refurbished in the 1840s, has fabric-hung walls and gilt mirror and pelmets. The SW sitting room’s features might all date from the 1777 refronting. The open-string stair to the first floor is probably also of this date, but with late-C19 timber newels and handrail, and cast-iron balustrade. The bedrooms have some Victorian fire-surrounds and inserts, but C18 surrounds are found in the SW bedroom and adjacent ‘breakfast room’. Bell-pulls remain in the western bedrooms. The back-stair window has a graffito with a date of 1763 and the name John Wheelwright. The service wing has a Victorian panelled bath and sink. The original attic stair is now blocked, and the attic served by a continuation* of the main stair with the same newel, but timber splat-balusters. In the attic is a Victorian servants’ sink, and the western truss is of hewn timbers with carpenters’ marks, and has a collar with king post and raking struts, and tie-beam with queen struts; the other roof timbers* are all machine-sawn. The walls are plastered as far as the lowest purlin.
COTTAGE
EXTERIOR: The roof is stone flags with exposed verges and ridge stacks at the S gable and centre. The front elevation faces E with alternating quoins, and modern sash windows* of four panes and one C19 sixteen-pane sash. These are all in square stone surrounds, two at first floor and at ground floor two pairs each divided by a chamfered mullion. The central part-glazed timber six-panelled front door* is C21. At the right is an attached low outbuilding with stone walls and currently felted roof with stone ridge-pieces. The side gables are blank save for an inserted kitchen window* to the N, and the rear wall of the same stone with four small windows plus one extended to accommodate a rear door*.
INTERIOR: the interior has exposed beams and purlins (some replacements*), flag floors, stone fireplaces in all four rooms and an inserted timber stair, with moulded panelled doors (some reproductions*).
CARRIAGE HOUSE AND STABLES
EXTERIOR: the S front has (at left) a carriage entrance with depressed arch and circular pitching hole above, and (to the right) two square-surround windows (now fixed lights) with a door between, and above an arched date stone of 1853 with the initials RS (probably Robert Sutcliffe), and duplicate pitching hole. There are chamfered eaves corbels but no box gutter. The left hand return has central ground-and-first-floor windows and a circular owl hole in the gable, plus a hayloft door with abutting stone steps. The rear has square eaves corbels but again no box gutter, and a central first-floor window with an eaves stack to the right. Projecting ceramic drainpipes* relate to later use as a chicken house. The right-hand end has a first-floor window only and a duplicate owl hole.
INTERIOR: the walls are plastered and the ceilings boarded. Between the carriage house and stables is a livery room with original cupboards, tack hooks, fireplace and Jacob’s ladder to the hayloft, plus diagonally boarded doors. The stables have a flag floor and four in-situ stall dividers creating three stalls. These are of tongue-and-groove boarding with cast iron sinuous top-rails and decorative circular posts. A spiral tram stair* has been inserted for loft access.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: in the gardens are a number of features, including: a square summer house with pyramidal stone flag roof, coursed stone walls and rusticated quoins; gardener’s privy (behind the garden wall of the cottage); a wash-house attached to the cottage by a boundary wall; a cistern/well between the wash-house and the stables; a plunge pool with steps down; tennis ground with steps and seats built into the walls, and the boundary walls to the property, in particular those to the front boundary (topped by a timber fence*) including the four entrance piers (three of which were missing their stone cornice and ball finials at the time of inspection) and quadrant walls linking them.
*Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the following aforementioned items are not of special architectural or historic interest: cast metal ogee gutter, hopper dated 2008 and downpipe to rear elevation; single–storey garage and plastic hopper and downpipe on E elevation; attic stair with splat balusters from first floor principal landing; roof timbers other than the western truss; late C20/early C21 windows and front and rear doors to the cottage; late C20/early C21 replacement beams and reproduction panelled doors in the cottage; ceramic drainpipes through stable walls; spiral tram stair serving stable hayloft; timber fence topping the boundary walls.
