Building record 1424 - Keeper's Close

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 58252 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Formerly farmhouse, later gamekeeper's house, now a house: early seventeenth century with eighteenth century and later twentieth century alterations and additions. English garden wall bond red brick on sandstone plinth. Kerridge stone-slate roof, stone ridge and one ridge and one gable brick chimney. Rectangular plan. Two-storey, four bay front. End bays under gables have three-light casements with applied lead glazing and three-light stone mullion windows above partly with original leaded glazing. Door to left of centre behind added gabled brick porch with a two-light stone mullion window above. To right are similar three-light casement and three-light stone mullioned windows. Small twentieth century addition in keeping. Has a standard plan of late sixteenth/early seventeenth century Mottram estate farms (see Higher Farmhouse (q.v.)) and may have had timber-framed origins.

<2> Peter de Figueiredo (Independent Consultant), 2007, Keeper's Close, Smithy Lane, Mottram St Andrew: Conservation Statement and Heritage Impact Assessment, R4729 (Client Report). SCH9505.

Keeper’s Close was built in the 17th century as a farmhouse. During the 19th century it served as a gamekeeper’s cottage to the Mottram estate (titled on an undated 19th century estate map as 'The Pheasantry').

It is a standard three cell, rectangular farmhouse, with cross passage and central hall/living space with inglenook fireplace. The room to the left of the passage would originally have been unheated and used for service accommodation. The room on the right side, behind the fireplace would have served as a parlour. The projecting gabled bay at the rear was probably additional storage space. The staircase would originally have been either along the rear wall of the living room or within the rear projection. The private rooms and bedrooms were restricted to first floor level. Originally there would have been no corridor or landing at this level. The front elevation, which survives from the 18th century, faces south and has a single entrance bay flanked by gabled bays. The extension to the east gable end of the house was added in the late 19th or early 20th century and is built in a different and harder brick. The single storey outbuildings along the north eastern boundary date from the mid 19th century and would originally have served as stabling, storage, workshops, and kennels.

Old timbers have been inserted throughout the house in ways for which they were not originally intended.It would appear that these timbers, largely of oak, are not original to this building and are also of differing dates. They appear to have been used with the intention of creating an antiquarian look; in a manner which is characteristic of the early 20th century. Despite the later insertion of timbers, the roof structure does appear to contain elements of original timber-framing. The gable end contains a truss encased externally in brickwork and another truss, similarly cased in brick, forms the gable of the rear projection. The purlins and rafters are also original and the trusses retain their plaster infill panels. Additionally, within the house, some of the floor beams appear to be undisturbed, including the bressumer to the inglenook.