| Description | Lower Heights, Warley. Mid to late 17th century house with attached 18th 19th century barn.
'2 storeyed, traditional stone house with stone roof. 2 mullioned windows to main (south) front. Lean to at rear with long low mullioned window. C18 barn attached to west with large arched entrance. Example of its type'.
(English Heritage listed building description. Date listed 03/11/1954. http://list.english heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1211359. Web site accessed 16/01/2014).
Lower Heights 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, dating from the second half of the 17th century. The house is of two storeys, faces south and is built of large blocks of gritstone laid in deep courses. The south front retains its original fenestration; on the ground floor the windows have recessed splayed mullions and on the first floor they have splayed mullions flush with the surface of the wall. The first floor windows have been raised to conform with a heightening of the walls, effected in the 19th century. The fact that the first floor windows have flush mullions could indicate that the house was built in the 17th or even, perhaps, in the early 18th century. Over the ground floor windows runs a continuous hood mould.
The original entry to the house has been converted to an internal doorway by the addition of further buildings to the west. The entry is in the west gable wall of the 17th century build, but the door surround has been plastered, disguising any decorative moulding or dated lintel. The door opens into the housebody alongside the main fireplace; the fireplace is modern and clearly replaces a firehood. The fire window lighting the former fire area survives, but the fact that the room has been re floored removes evidence for the positions of the earlier bressumer. To the east lies the parlour; this too is featureless, but it was clearly heated originally, for the gable stack is contemporary with the house.
Dividing front rooms from rear is a thick stone wall. The rear rooms are contained within an outshut. Later additions to both gables make it difficult to demonstrate that the outshut is an original feature but the early nature of some of the windows makes it possible that the house always had a rear range of rooms. On the east wall of the outshut is a three light mullion window this has broad lights with round arched heads, and the mullions have cavetto mouldings. The window has been partially converted to a doorway. The north wall of the outshut has a mixture of recessed and flush splayed mullions in the widows, The outshut gives a number of small rooms used originally for services.
In the 19th century a laithe was added to the west and a linking passage built, and to the east a low outbuilding was constructed'.
(Giles, C. (WYAS/RCHME). 1980. 'Lower Heights. Warley'). |