| Description | Riding Head Farm, Warley. Farm, barn and cottage in linear plan dating to the 18th century. Contains late medieval timber framed building fabric from house and cruck barn.
A historic research and building description of Riding Head farmhouse and barn with attached cottage was presented in 1995 by J.A. Hegginbottom ('The architectural history of Riding Head Farmhouse, Luddenden, West Yorkshire'). The part of the work regarding the architectural interest of the group is summarised below:
Built c.1790 in watershot construction. The facade has three sections with three doorways and three five light mullioned windows to the ground and first floor. The farmhouse on the left has a two unit plan and the cottage on the right is of a single unit with a rear kitchen. The rear of the range is back to earth.
The farmhouse has two doorways, one enters the house body, the other the parlour on the right. There is a keeping cellar below the housebody. In the 19th century a stair was added to the housebody in the central cell and a scullery added to the cottage gable. Most of the timbers in the roof are of 18th century sawn softwood. Some timbers are hardwood, and these have been reused from two post medieval timber framed buildings. Oak purlins are reused tiebeams from vertically closed king post trusses, representing a two storey box framed house. Another roof purlin is a blade from a cruck frame. This has halving joints for tie beam, collar, purlin and wind braces. The surviving timber evidence, from the first half of the 16th century, suggests that there were at least two buildings on site; a house and a cruck framed barn. Other reused timbers include spine beams and joist of a 17th century building. The only identifiable stonework from the same period is the two light double chamfered mullioned window in the gable. These small survivals indicate an addition to or a rebuilding in stone of a timber framed house.
The barn has a typical local 18th century laithe form with a central cart entry with two light window over and a mistal with hay loft to each end. The rear has a doorway providing access (via a ladder) from the hillside. The barn predates the farm due to its raised roof which matches the farm house. The roof is supported on an 18th century softwood queen post truss. There is also a reused 17th century oak queen strut truss which indicates another rebuilding.
(Hegginbottom, J.A. 1995).
The mid to late 17th century two cell cottage 40m to the south east and associated with Riding Head Farm is the subject of a separate record (see PRN 13195). |