Description
From NT VBS Yorkshire 1008 Building 1:
An 18th century two-storey sandstone and pantiled farmhouse, probably pre-1750. The ground floor plan and fittings, including stone heck, kitchen fire window and bench, and parlour fireplace and spice cupboard, remain susbtantially intact. Roof, upper floor and front windows remodelled, upstairs back window inserted, and single-storey kitchen added in 19th century. The original gable entry remains inside the kitchen addition.
A stone incorporated in the building bears the date "1666" (down in the dry area at the back of the house) - evidence of an earlier stone-built house which is presumably the subject of extant conveyances dated 1671 and 1699. A rough guide to the date of the present building comes from comparison with the old house at Moorhouses (NTSMR 31633) for which a date of 1714 has been conjectured....
Of all the houses surviving in Bransdale, those it most closely resembles are neaby Catherine House and the old house at Moorhouses now converted to agricultural use.
The house is aligned roughly NW-SE and forms the centrepiece of a basically linear development of farm buildings, attractively sited at the foot of steeply rising ground. It is unusual among Bransdale farmhouses in that the more politely styled front of the house faces NE. A single storey addition to the SE end dates from the 19th century; it replaced a slightly lower addition or porch, a small portion of the roof line of which is still visible. At the NW gable a late 19th century cart-shed abuts. A stone causeway runs along the main axis of the farmstead at the front of the house, while along the back (SW) wall runs a rough dry area.
The main body of the house (excluding the 19th century SE extension) is built of squared coursed sandstone, dressed on the front (NE) elevation with fine herringbone tooling. Chamfered lintels, sills and large quoins to the reveals of the original windows on the front elevation have, where they survive, zig-zag tooling between horizontal-tooled margins left and right. There is a similarly tooled lintel over the fire window in the SE gable. The original 18th century NE front which this evidence suggests had two horizontal mullioned windows to the ground floor and three similar horizontal windows to the upper floors. The RCHME suggest that the fire window occupies a gable position, rather than a more traditional position in the front elevation, in order not to disturb the symmetry of the polite front. In the SW wall there seems to have been only a single long horizontal window lighting the dairy.
The 18th century ground floor plan survives intact. A gable entry in the SE gable is screened from the kitchen by a stone heck, chamfered to the approach to the kitchen. The kitchen occupies the SE half of the house, while the NW half is divided between a parlour and a smaller dairy. Kitchen and parlour had fireplaces in the gable walls, of which the parlour fireplace survives, the zig-zag tooling of its surround matching that of the window openings. A spice cupboard also survives right of the parlour fireplace; it has a moulded architrave, butterfly hinges, and a beaded door with a sunk panel.
The 19th century alterations were extensive. The roof was raised by four courses, allowing the upstairs front windows to be heightened and converted to horned vertical sashes and enabling the insertion of an upstairs back window (a Yorkshire sliding sash). Probably at the same time the ground floor front windows were modified - the mullions removed, the sills cut away, and lower tiled sills substituted using the projecting nibs for decorative effect. The kitchen window was also narrowed by the insertion of herringbone tooled stone, while the parlour window seems to have been widened slightly. A similar tiled sill was inserted beneath the fire window without removing the stone cill. The dairy window has been narrowed - apparently in two stages, but at what date is unclear. Gable chimneys (of upright slabs with a coved top course) and sandstone gable copings oversailing shaped kneelers are also 19th century, with the possible exception of the kneeler at the SE end of the NW gable, which looks older, and may be reused from the original roof. The jointed clay ridge tiles are modern, and probably replace a 19th century sandstone ridge. The roof space was not entered, but the two tie-beam trusses with notched principals and two sets of tusk-tenoned purlins reported by the RCHME are probably 19th century as well. Raising the roof also allowed the remodelling of the upper floor, with ceilings raised or inserted, and floors re-laid on 19th century chamfered joists which are exposed throughout below.
The door in the original gable entry has tulip-headed hinges, and may survive from before the present SE addition was built. Left of the door, on entering, a low recessed shelf or cupboard is an unusual feature. It bears some resemblance to the two blocked windows on the upper floor of the old house at Moorhouses. The staircase rises straight ahead from the entrance; it is doored at the bottom, and screened from the kitchen by boards which are probably contemporary with the 19th century wainscot that runs along the NE and SE sides of the kitchen. The kitchen fireplace has been filled with blockwork, but a 19th century stone surround survives. Against the stone heck, and facing the fireplace, is a wooden bench backed by a further stretch of wainscot. The RCHME suggest that both bench and staircase have been renewed. The fire window has a moulded architrave, probably 19th century; the door to the parlour, of three wide planks, may be earlier. The stone-flagged dairy is a step up from the kitchen. Where the window has been partially blocked the sill has been retained as a shelf.
The upper floor has three rooms grouped around a landing lit by the back window. The top end of the staircase is guarded by a short balustrade, the other end by a stud and rail partition that has been cut down to the height of the balustrade. The room at the NW end is currently disused; the ceiling has been removed, revealing the purlins. Beams, marking the position of the roof trusses, are visible at the top of the partitions running NE-SW and spanning the landing and stairwell. At present there is no bathroom in the house (the outside privy continuing in use) but with a view to creating one a further partition has been inserted at the SE end of the house. It has not, however, been tied to either the gable wall or the ceiling. A small trap-door over the landing gives access into the roof-space.
The 19th century addition at the SE end consists of a kitchen with a small loft over (not entered). It meets the house at a straight joint on the SW side, and its squared, coursed sandstone walls have some herringbone but mostly irregular tooling. The lintel of the doorway against the gable of the house is herringbone tolled with margins. There are two single light casements in the NE and SW corners respectively. Both have tiled sills, but without the projecting nibs found elsewhere. The roof is pantiled with sandstone ridge and gable copings, the latter resting on notched splayed kneelers. There is a projecting square eaves course. A squat sandstone chimney rises from a slight plinth at the SE gable and has a projecting top course. In the SW wall a second straight joint suggests that there was previously another door opposite the present one. Some support for this may bee seen in the flight of rough stone steps climbing out of the dry area further along the SW wall of the main house. The existing door is reached via a flight of concrete steps now cracked and crumbling. Inside both window openings incorporate shelves, one dropped below sill level, the other extending beyond the splay to the gable wall. The fireplace is 19th century. There is a small projecting portion of brickwork between the fireplace and the NE wall, and in the SW wall, below and L of the window, there is some brick infilling. The floor is of concrete slabs. The loft floor is supported on exposed joists and is accessible through a large trap door; the size of the trap door suggests, in fact, that it was intended to provide more than merely occasional access; possibly the loft was used to store cured meat."
The VBS also contains a copy of the RCHME survey report (Oct 1978), and a certain amount of historical and social information [1]-[19].
Listed Grade II [20].
Property Survey information [21]:
The earliest references to the property previously known as "Helm House" are in the 17th century [22] [23], and the house contains a re-used date stone of 1666. Originally, the complex was two seperate properties, "Low Elm" and "High Elm House" (see NTSMR 31320); this distinction is still made on the modern OS maps. In the late 18th century Low Elm House was owned by George Petch, and in 1780 he sold it to Isaac Scarth who farmed the property until the early 19th century. In 1780 Richard Wood sold High Elm House, described as "the ancient messuage and farm called Helme House" to Thomas Chapman; an inscribed lintel in what was the former house (NTSMR 31320) probably commemorates this purchase [24]. Between 1814 and 1828, both Low and High Elm House were bought by the Duncombe/Feversham estate, and amalgamated into a single 48 acre unit [25] [26]. However, the 1851 census implies two seperate farms, with John Richardson (farmer with 48 acres) at Low Helm House and John Garbutt (farmer of 30 acres) at High Helm House [27]. Low Elm was still a seperate working farm in 1913 [28]. The RCHME book contains a ground floor plan of Low Elm House, erronously labelled as "High Elm House" [29].
Site visit 11/11/1999:
The house has been renovated sympathetically, and now serves as a holiday cottage. The external steps and window appear to have been replaced as part of this renovation. Interior not inspected.
Site visit 18/07/2000:
No change [30] [31].