| Description | Lock keeper's cottage, Ramsden's Bridge, Stanley cum Wrenthorpe (SE 35504 22700). Single storey cottage built around 1839.
The lock keeper's cottage at Ramsden's Bridge was the subject of an archaeological assessment by Lucy Caffyn in 1982 as part of the WYAS/RCHME Workers' Housing Survey. The photographic prints and sketch plans produced by the assessment are held by WYAAS (Caffyn, L. (WYAS/RCHME). 1982). The fieldwork report is summarised below:
This is a single storey lock keeper's cottage built, facing east onto the canal, by the Aire and Calder Navigation Company. This part of the canal was opened in 1839, so the cottage will date to that period.
The cottage is built in a classical style of coursed, squared stone (ashlar but with courses of different widths). The roof is hipped and of pantiles with a stone chimney stack. The windows have stone lintels and projecting cills. There is a projecting string course; a pediment to the door, and the door surround, corners and gable windows surrounds project as a decorative feature. The chimney stack has sunken panels. The whole effect is much more decorative than at the earlier lock cottage at Elland and Brighouse built by the Calder and Hebble Navigation Company.
Entry is into the heated living room. Off this leads the heated bedroom and a rear scullery. The stairs from the scullery lead to the stone flagged cellar in which is a stone shelf and three iron brackets on the back wall (two to support a shelf with a third for lamp). Next to the cellar is a second subterranean chamber said to have been a stable for horses, the cottage acting as an exchange point for company tow horses. At one point, a small heated brick office lean to butted the north wall. There is a modern bathroom extension to the east side.
(Caffyn, L. (WYAS/RCHME). 1982. 'Single storey lock keeper's cottage, Ramsden's Bridge, Wards Lane, Ferry Lane, Stanley'). |