| Description | Birchen Lee Carr and attached barn, Wadsworth
'House, mid C17, with added barn dated 1886. Large dressed stone, stone slate roof. 3 room through passage plan with added rear kitchen wing c.1673. Plinth, string course continues over ground floor windows. 2 chamfered mullioned windows of 2 lights (lacks mullions) to service end with 2 light double chamfered mullioned window over. Doorway with cyma moulded surround. All other windows are double chamfered mullioned. 3 light fire window. Next 2 cells break forward under coped gables with kneelers with 2 span roof. Impressive frontage. 16 light mullioned and transomed housebody window with 3 king mullions. 5 light window over to 1st floor has hoodmould with decorative stops. Rainwater chute projects between gables. 7 light parlour window with double stepped window of 3 over 5 lights has stepped hoodmould. Attached barn, slightly set back, has elliptical arched cart entry the keystone engraved ' S C '. 1 8 8 6 Over is a circular pitching hole with 4 keystones. To either side mistal doorways with single light window and arrow slit ventilators. Eaves band and gutter brackets. Left hand return wall has 3 light chamfered mullioned window with 5 light double chamfered mullioned window over to 1st floor which has hoodmould with scrolled label stops. Rear kitchen wing ruinous though all stonework preserved including that of segmental arched fireplace. Hall range has 3 light chamfered mullioned window with hoodmould. Over to 1st floor under coped gable is double chamfered mullioned window of 6 lights. Interior preserves bressumer and reeded spine beams. Fireplace with moulded shelf, segmental arched lintel carried on corbelled jambs has moulded surround. A house of some distinction, prominent in the landscape. One of the finest examples of a Yeoman clothier's house in West Yorkshire (Stell, C.F. 1960. 'Vernacular Architecture in a Pennine Community'. Pages 49, 239, 240 and 286)'.
(English Heritage listed building description. Date listed 19/07/1963. Date amended 21/06/1984. http://list.english heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1230186. Web site accessed 06/11/2013).
WYAAS archives holds annotated sketches and a photographic image of decorative stained glass found at Birchen Lee Carr (Source unknown. c.1953). The images depict what are probably small window panels bearing armorials, initials and decorative motifs.
A copy of plan and elevation drawings entitled 'Restoration of Birchen Lee Carr, Mytholmroyd. M.B. of Calderdale', dated March 1981 are held in the WYAAS archives (Source unknown. 1981).
Birchen Lee Carr was the subject of an archaeological assessment by Colum Giles in 1982 as part of the WYAS/RCHME Rural Houses Survey. The photographic images produced by the assessment are held by WYAAS (Giles, C. (WYAS). 1982).
Birchen Lee Carr house is described in a RCHME historic building report dated 1993. A copy of the report which contains historic building description, copies of photographic prints and a plan [loose leaf] is held by WYAAS. The report is summarised below:
Birchen Lee Carr is a Clothier’s farmhouse dating from the early 17th century. It is constructed of coursed dressed gritstone and is of two storeys. It has a cross passage plan with an unheated service room to the west, a central house body with gabled projection to the south, and to the east has a gabled wing containing a parlour and unheated service rooms. The housebody was originally heated by a hearth and smoke hood, and retains a reeded bressumer which is chamfered and scroll stopped. This ornamentation is also used on the original ground floor ceilings and joists. Original divisions on both floors were formed by plank and muntin screens. The roof has king post trusses with 'V' struts. |