| Description | Cottages at Wadsworth Royd, Wadsworth. Pair of early 19th century cottages
'Pair of cottages. Early C19. Hammer dressed stone, stone slate roof, 2 storeys. The gables have quoined angles, kneelers and copings, 4 light flat faced mullioned windows with tall Venetian window over. The return wall opposite to farmhouse has paired doorways with tie stone jambs. The interior of each single cell cottage has flat arched lintel to fireplace with moulded shelve and monolithic jambs'.
(English Heritage listed building description. Date listed 21/06/1984. http://list.english heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1230180. Web site accessed 06/11/2013).
The cottages at Wadsworth Royd were visited by Colum Giles in 1982 as part of the WYAS/RCHME Rural Houses Survey. The photographic images produced by the assessment are held in the HER (Giles, C (WYAS/RCHMWE). 1982). The fieldwork report is transcribed below:
'Wadsworth Royd is a stone house of 17th century date built on the familiar lines of a hall and cross wing, hearth passage plan. At the rear of the house, that is, on its north side, is a two storey outbuilding, originally detached but now linked by a connecting block.
The outbuilding was built as a pair of cottage in the second half of the 18th century. The walling is in coursed rubble watershot masonry, with quoins at the angles. The south wall is blank apart from a pair of doorways sited centrally. The doorways have composite jambs, a square head and un chamfered surrounds. Each doorway gives access to a cottage of a single cell. The cottages are lit by windows in the gable walls; the widows have square mullions recessed slightly behind the surface of the wall. A central stack heats both cottages, giving fireplaces heating the ground floor rooms. The fireplaces have jambs made up of a single stone and flat lintels with rounded corners. Each fireplace has next to it a small spice cupboard. In the north wall of each cottage is a square opening; these are not windows, as they do not pierce the complete thickness of the wall. It is likely that the provided cupboard space, possibly for cool storage.
Each cottage was served by a stair rising up its north wall. The stair has been removed from the western cottage, but its site is revealed by the spacing of the joists, which in this area leave a wider gap for a ladder stair. A ladder stair still survives in the eastern cottage, but its appearance does not suggest that it is in the original flight. The first floor provides a single room in both cottages. The chambers are lit by Venetian windows in the gable walls. It is likely that these windows were merely intended to be decorative, despite the humble level of building in which they are found, but it is conceivable that the large central light of the windows had a use in allowing bulky materials associated with the weaving of cloth to be loaded in and out. The removal of one flight of stairs has necessitated the insertion of a doorway into the dividing wall between the two cottages; the remaining stair, therefore, serves both cottages.
Each cottage was, therefore, a single cell dwelling with one room on the ground floor and one room on the first floor. The ground floor room was doubtless the main living area, although how much the cottage were expected to act as dwellings independent of the farmhouse a few yards away is not clear. It is possible that the occupants of the cottage, presumably farmhands and/or weavers, were catered for as part of the household'.
(Giles, C. (WYAS/RCHME). 1982. ‘Outbuildings at Wadsworth Royd Farm, Wadsworth') |