| Description | Lower Green Edge. House of c.1700 date with possible earlier origins.
Lower Green Edge was the subject of an archaeological assessment by Colum Giles in 1980 as part of the WYAS/RCHME Rural Houses Survey. The photographic images and sketch plan produced by the assessment are held by WYAAS (Giles, C. (WYAS/RCHME). 1980). The fieldwork report is transcribed below:
'This is a stone house, possibly of c.1700, with later additions and alterations. The house faces south west (south for the purposes of this report), is of two storeys and is built of coursed rubble masonry, quoined at the angles.
The extent and form of the early house is difficult to recover, for it is possible that the evolution has been complicated by a piecemeal replacement of a structure that has now entirely vanished. The earliest part of the existing complex lies to the south west; it is a building of two cells. The south and west walls of this build are visible; as stated the masonry is quoined at the visible angles, suggesting that this build was originally free standing. No doorway has ever existed in either of the two walls, and it is likely, therefore, that the original entry was in the east gable wall, in the position of the present modern internal door. This would give a standard gable entry plan, the door opening into the main room, the housebody, along side the fireplace. The fireplace has replace a firehood; there is little evidence to prove this, but the two light window in the south wall is in the right position to light a fire area beneath such a hood. To the west lay the parlour; the stack heating this room appears to be an addition, and it seems that the parlour was unheated originally. The existence of a two light widow in the east gable wall suggests that the west cell was subdivided to give a parlour to the south and a small dairy to the north.
This could be the extent of the original house, for the outshut in its present form is an addition and the laithe to the east has clearly been built onto the house. A number of points indicate, however, that the house was larger. Opening out of the house body to the north are two doorways, side by side and clearly contemporary with each other. One of the door lintels is inscribed 'W S 1731', and it is possible that this date refers to the construction of the whole house. The windows on the south front have a form which is not entirely inconsistent with this date; only that in the housebody has recessed splayed mullions, for the parlour and fire area are lit by windows with splayed mullions flush with the surface of the wall. This combination of two forms suggests a transition stage and the date 1731 conforms well with this hypothesis. The two doorways thus give alternative theories: the first holds that in 1731 an outshut was added to a two cell house to provide more service rooms; the second maintains that the house was built in 1731 with a two cell main range and an original outshut, the outshut being extended or rebuilt at a later date to its present size. The balance of the evidence is perhaps weighted in favour of the first idea, for outshuts are rarely found combined with subdivided inner cell (the sub division providing the same accommodation as the outshut) and it would be very unusual for a house, rather than an addition to a house, to be dated by an internal stone. The date of the house may, therefore be pushed back into the early years of the 18th century without doing violence to the evidence. |