| Description | Low Grange Farm, Ackworth.
Two storey house with an attached range of low agricultural sheds in a linear plan with an east west alignment. The main housebody occurs to the west of the range and has three triple gabled cross wings projecting north towards Rigg Lane. The centre wing has a shorter gable giving a porch like appearance.
The walls are rendered. The window openings, where visible are single light, have heavy bevelled surrounds and segmental long and short jambs. The larger windows have square proportions. The wing roof gables have stone copings and round finials. There are three chimney stacks visible; on the side elevation of the eastern wing, on the side elevation of the western wing where it projects slightly beyond the middle wing (both occur as external stacks) and on the western gable of the main housebody occurring as an internal stack. The southern elevation of the house was not visible on available resources.
Although the house has the appearance of a cross wing hall of the 17th or early 18th century, from available evidence it is difficult to say if this is the case. The building is not depicted on mapping of 1774, although an adjacent orchard is (A map of the Manor of Ackworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire. 1774). This may be an omission by the surveyor, however. The house is depicted and named in 1849 and has a long linear plan in the same position as the current plan (OS 1st edition 6'. 1849. Sheet 249). The current building footprint is clearly depicted c.1894 (OS 25' 2nd edition. c.1894).
(Lunn, K.R. (WYAAS). 2014. Description of Low Grange Farm based on on line map resourses and historic mapping: https://maps.google.co.uk/. Web site accessed 17/01/2014).
David Hunter (Senior Industrial Archaeologist. WYAAS) provided the following comments in 2014:
‘Historic maps would suggest a late 18th or early 19th century date of origin; Rigg Lane does not appear on Jefferys’ map of the early 1770s although Briars Flatts, now Ackworth Grange is shown. Both Rigg Lane and Low Grange farm are present by the time the Ordnance Survey publish the First edition 6” to the mile map in 1854. Interestingly the copy of this map I have examined suggests that the land to the south of Rigg Lane was either unenclosed or very recently enclosed. By the 1890s a pattern of narrow strip fields is discernable which may confirm an enclosure date in the early 1800s.
However, the style of architecture at Low Grange would suggest an earlier date. I wonder if it is perhaps contemporary with Briars Flatts’.
(Hunter, D. (WYAAS). 17/01/2014. E mail correspondence to Peter Wade (Consultant) regarding Low Grange Farm). |