Farmhouse, Stork House, Bransdale

Summary

A late 19th century ruined farmhouse with attached piggery and earlier house.

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Description

From NT VBS Yorkshire 1001 Bulding 1:
"The farmhouse was built in the 19th century as an extension to an existing house of the late 17th or 18th century, the NW gable of which is incorporated in the present building and a stone fireplace and smokehood survive on the exposed face. The fireplace has jambs formed by square monoliths with roll cappings which supported a plain, square, lintel: all are ashlar. Another, diagonally tooled lintel with three vertical mortices on its face (there is another mortice in the wall to the left) is incorporated in the smoke- hood.
The roof line visible on the present gable wall shows that the earlier structure was single storey and the steepness of the pitch suggests that it was thatched. Blocked openings, one over the other to the right of the fireplace, indicate that there was a floored loft which was made accessible as was the ground floor, from the "new" building.
The SE gable wall of the earlier building stands to a height of about 3m and the NE wall, much patched, varies from about 1.2m to 2m high. Nothing remains of the SW wall but the foundations. The stonework is coursed sandstone rubble. A later earth closet at the SE corner is in more regular masonry with diagonal tooling.
The 19th century house was built in stages. The first, nearly square in plan, comprises an entrance lobby with a softwood staircase enclosed by tongued and grooved softwood boarding. The stair has winders at its head; first floor joints are exposed and chamfered. The upper floor was not seen. As previously mentioned there was a door from this lobby into the earlier house which is now blocked. The remaining space was divided by a brick partition into a parlour and a passage which led to a later kitchen, again partitioned and with an outshot to the rear. This outshot could not be entered.
The last extension was a range of three pig styes at the NW end of the building. These styes are built in squared, coursed sandstone rubble. They have stone troughs and a stone flag floored loft reached by gable steps.
The 19th century masonry is coursed, squared sandstone rubble with random tooling, the earlier stonework to the SE gable is miore finely tooled in a chevron pattern. Roofs are pantiles laid in lime mortar on close lathing. There are, or were, gable copings to all stages of the building range and all except the first (the farmhouse) have square, notched kneelers. The farmhouse has two chimneys built in ashlar stone with plinths and coved cappings. It also has a square, oversailing, eaves course.
The range of buildings is derelict and ruinous. The farmhouse has been vandalised."
The VBS also contains a copy of a North Yorks and Cleveland Vernacular Buildings Study Group report (1970), a copy of the RCHME survey report (Oct 1977), and a certain amount of historical and social information [1]-[9].

Property Survey information [10]:
The Stork House holding appears to have originated as one, or part of, a medieval monastic grange founded by Rievalux Abbey and it is likely (although not certain) that the position of the farmstead occupies the original grange site. The holding is mentioned in a survey of 1637, when it was held by Thomas Gibson, and again in 1680 when the 95 acre farm included "Cinder Hill" near Mitchell Hagg [11] [12]. Unfortunately, the re-arrangement of the field boundaries in the 19th century makes it very difficult to identify the extent of the original holding, but the remains of the 17th century farmhouse survive in the NE corner of the farmstead (see above). A larger block of 125 acres, which also included 8 acres at Catherine House, was purchased by the Duncombe/Feversham Estate between 1814 and 1818. Two maps were drawn at this time, and these show that all the existing buildings on the site were already built; the house is depicted as one long range incorporating the now ruined earlier structure [13] [14].
In 1818 the farm was tenanted to Robert Slater [15], and later tenants included John Weighill, John Hugill (formerly of Spout House) and Joseph Stonehouse. In the 1890s George and Mary Bently were living there, and Thomas and Lilian Pierson were farming the property in the depression years. The ruined house is not included in the 1910 valuation although the present house is [16].

Site visit 11/11/99:
The exposed smokehood is of stone, and may simply be a chimney breast. The later earth closet could not be located and may have been demolished. One of the Bransdale tenants suggests that stonework has been taken from the site to build grouse butts. A cast iron grate is present in the parlour and there are the remains of a range in the kitchen.

Site visit 18/07/2000:
No change - the building is ruined and will deteriorate rapidily without remedial action [17]-[26].

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