Site Event/Activity record ECH6285 - Historic Building Survey. Whittle Hall Farm, Warrington, Cheshire

Level 2 building recording prior to demolition of a post medieval farmstead. A total of four buildings were surveyed and formed part of a post-medieval farmstead, which was on the possible site of the Great Sankey manor house, first documented in the mid-15th century. The earliest building was a farm cottage (Building 2), which almost certainly dates to the 18th century, probably occupying the site of an earlier building. The next major phase of building was the construction of the west range of the barn and fodder house (Building 9), probably I n the mid-19th century. A subsequent phase of development in the late nineteenth century comprised the construction of a larger farmhouse (Building 1) and a cow and cart shed (Building 5), which is likely to have replaced an earlier building. It is of note that the principal elevation of the rebuilt farmhouse faced away from the farm, whilst the rear elevation works to the farm buildings. A threshing barn was also added to the complex sometime in the late 19th century, forming an east/west-aligned extension to Building 9. The buildings underwent some modification, including raising the eaves of the cottage to create a useable space on the first floor, and conversion of the threshing barn into a cow shed. The reuse of older bricks and timber within some of the buildings suggests that it had functioned as a farmstead for hundreds of years. The considerable investment in the buildings suggests that it had been an estate farm