| Abstract: |
Building record of the farmhouse and five farm buildings was undertaken between September and November 2022 at buildings at North Farm (North Farm Close), Hard Lane, Harthill, South Yorkshire; prior to restoration, partial demolition and conversion of the farmhouse and demolition of the five farm buildings, which had previously been partially converted into domestic dwellings in the 1980s/1990s. This building record was to comply with Condition 26 on Planning Permission RB2019/1474. The Evaluation by Trial Trenching, which consisted of four trenches revealed no archaeological activity across the Proposed Development Area. No further archaeological work was necessary on the site as high levels of modern disturbance would have likely truncated, obscured or removed any potential archaeological finds or features. The farmhouse and farm buildings were built in local rough sandstone blocks and brick. The farm buildings with gabled with pantile covered roofs, which were one, one and a half and two storeys high. The farmhouse was two and a half storeys high to the south, with one storey extensions to the east, west & north and one and a half storeys high to the north and attached one and a half storey high barn; with a hipped roof to the east and gabled to the west and north. The brick walls were built in English Garden Wall bond. The farmhouse had a main elevation facing the village (to the south). The stone blockwork clearly showed the farmhouse had been extended up and to the west, when larger windows were inserted in the early 19th century. There were windows with stone surrounds to the east and north and a blocked main door with stone lintels and edging on the east side of the south elevation. Internally, there was a cellar, accessed from the north into the northern extension, which had collapsed and was too dangerous to enter. The farmhouse to the north, had an internal staircase to the east of a later fireplace and a fire window to the west set in an alcove behind an east-west beam. This was probably the remnant of an open inglenook or possibly a smoke hood, dating to the late 17th or early 18th century. There was a single storey dairy extension, located to the west of the farmhouse with a separate entrance to the south. The five farm buildings were in three blocks with three barns (one and a half storeys high), two open shelter sheds and two byres. Two barns and a shelter shed to the north with a parallel plan. To the south were a barn, open shelter shed and two byres with a U-shaped around a courtyard fronting on to Hard Lane/Union Street to the east. • Farm Building 1 was L-shaped in plan with a barn to the north (roof raised from one and a half to two storeys high) and one storey open shelter shed to the south. • Farm Building 2 was a one and a half storey barn and attached to the north gable the farmhouse. There were scars on the north gable wall for trusses and floors for another building. • Farm Building 3 was the east part of an open shelter shed with a modern extension to the west and a single storey two roomed building to the east. • Farm Building 4 was the north half of a one and a half-storey barn, aligned north-south, and butted by the west part of the open shelter shed to the east, as earlier windows and doors had been blocked or left within the later buildings. • Farm Building 5 was the southern part of the one and a half-storey barn with a later byre to the east. There was a single storey building attached to the east gable of the byre, which was not within the build area and owned by the house to the south. There were six phases of development and expansion of the farm: from farmhouse, byre and barn in the early 18th century, expansion to add a dairy, barns, byres and stables with a larger farmhouse. |
