Yoad House, Bransdale

Summary

A 20th century house in one of the smaller farm complexes in the Dale.

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Description

From NT VBS Yorkshire 1014 Building 1:
A single-pile, two storey house aligned E-W, facing S, with a ground floor outshot store placed sligthly E of centrally on the N side. The principal ground floor rooms are disposed E and W of a large chimney, located slightly SW of the centre. Entrance from the S side is through as roughly centrally placed doorway into a small lobby, opening onto both kitchen (W) and parlour (E). From the N side entrance is through a doorway in the W gable of the outshot, through the store and a further opening (undoored) in the main N wall of the house, into another small lobby leading to kitchen (W), parlour (S) and understairs cupboard (E). Two steps rise from a door in the NE corner of the parlour to a quarter landing, then the main flight climbs W alongside the N wall to an l-shaped passage. One further step rises to the level of the upstairs rooms, consisting of a large and small bedroom and a bathroom, each extending partly into the roof space. A small trapdoor serves the remaining roof space (not entered).
The house is built in squared, cousred sandstone, dressed on the S side, with dressed margins on the quoin returns. Stonework displays some herringbone tooling, while lintels and sills are obliquely tooled. The right-hand window lintels on both the N and S side elevations are cracked and have caused settlement in the masonry above. The roof is of interlocking tiles, masked at the verges by plain barge boards, with projecting chamfered purlin ends. There is a sandstone ridge, with a square ridge-mounted sandstone chimney capped with a coved course and clay pots. The outshot is of later build; the coursing does not match up with that of the house, and there are straight joints where the house and outshot meet. (However, a wall cupboard set into the N wall of the house proper inside the store is a curious feature in the circumstances). The pitch of the outshot roof is slightly shallower than that of the house, but in other respects the addition harmonises closely with the original structure.
Windows are a mixture of casements and fixed lights, with a few top hoppers. The S elevation, for example, contains two three light windows at ground level, each consisting of two fixed lights flanking a central casement; the fifteen pane galss door (one pane replaced by a catflap) is topped by a four pane rectangular fanlight. Because of the low eaves height - barely more than 4m - upstairs windows are confined to the gable walls. The W gable has at the upper level a pair of twin light windows (one fixed and one casement each) the lintels of which bear on a monolith resting on the cills and covering the end of an internal partition, giving a mullion like appearance. The E gable contains a three-light window at upper level, unusual in that the individiual lights are without timber mullions. The kitchen is remarkable for being lit by no less than four windows; the left-hand ground floor window in the W gable, however, has thinner lintel and a wooden, rather than stone, sill and is presumably a later insertion.
Internally, both upstairs fireplaces have been blocked, though a small tiled hearth remains in the smaller bedroom. Downstairs both fireplaces are modern. Above them, however, are firebeams, crudely chamfered and stopped, and supported towards the S end on brackets with shaped ends projecting from the lobby partition. The kitchen firebeam is, in addition, supported by a large square sandstone pier. Exposed joists extend between beam and chimney in both rooms; in the kitchen there is also an exposed trimmer supporting an upstairs fireplace. Interior doors are mostly fourpanelled with moulded architraves, mortice locks, and wooden handles and escutcheons; some have pressed metal finger-plates.
The door from the parlour to the rear (N) entrance lobby has finger-plates both sides, but moulded grounds to the panels on the parlour side only. The doors from the N lobby to the kitchen and understairs cupboard are ledged and battened.
Although it probably replaced a farmhouse, the existing Yoad House does not appear to have been designed with the functions of a farm house in mind. Little of the Bransdale vernacular remains beyond the sandstone wall construction; plan form and roof construction in particular are departures from the norm. Furthermore, internal features such as the firebeams and supporting pier seem to be aiming at a pictureseque effect remote from the less self-conscious intentions of the vernacular.
The VBS also contains a copy of the undated RCHME survey report (probably Oct 1978), and a certain amount of historical and social information [1]-[7].

Property Survey information [8]:
The farm (also called Yoad Hurst and Loft Hill) does not appear to have been a freehold property at any time in its history, and was part of the Duncombe/Feversham estate by 1782 when Isaac Scarth was the tenant of the 48 acre holding [9]. He had only recently purchased Elm House from George Petch and was eventually to buy Loft House, and by 1796 John Knaggs was the tenant at Yoad House [10]. By the time of the later survey of 1828 the holding was leased to William Hugill, but had reduced in size to only nine acres with almost all the land having been transferred to Spout House [11]. By the time of the 1851, the 70 year old William Hugill, described as an agricultural labourer, was still living there with his wife Mary (68 years old) and one daughter [12]. In 1910 Yoad House was farmed by George Acar and Amelia Garbutt [13].

Site visit 22/03/2000:
There is very little herringbone tooling evident. Any cracked lintels appear to have been replaced; the N window in the ground floor, W elevation, has a concrete lintel. The windows in the S elevation are all of 8 panes, and there is a new 4 panelled, unglazed front door. There are sash windows to the rear and E elevations. A paved path at the SW leads to a culvert opening, presumably a former means of obtaining water. Historic maps show a short-lived structure just to the N (NTSMR 31368), presumably demolished when the house was built. The present building dates to after 1912 [14].

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