Building record 594 - Former Farmstead on Cinnamon Lane

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 58901 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Barn, late seventeenth century. Small bricks with stone slate roof. Four bays. Altered ledged and battened doors, timber eaves gutter. Internally: Oak collar and tie beam trusses, old purlins, ridge tree, rafters and slate battens.

<2> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 58900 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Farmhouse, mid nineteenth century. Coloured brick with stone slate roof and stone ridge. Two storeys, three bays. Four panel door with flush lower panels and raised and fielded upper panels, flanked by three-light casements and with three two-light casements at first floor level. The windows have rock faced stone sills, turning pieces with cambered arches, and planted timber stopped labels. Small facade gables and gable ends have shaped purlins and narrow barge boards. Gable end stacks.

<3> See map for surveyor, c.1836-50, Lancashire Tithe Maps and Awards, D4625/3, 1840 (Maps and Plans). SCH9352.

This map depicts two buildings at this location. The northern of the two buildings (the barn) is a rectangular building with its long axis aligned north-north-west to south-south-east. The southern building (the farmhouse) is L-shaped with its long axis aligned north-east to south-west. The plot is described as a homestead.

<4> Ordnance Survey, 1893-96, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 25 inch to 1 mile - Lancashire, SJ6291, 1893 (Maps and Plans). SCH3847.

This map depicts the L-shaped barn and farmhouse. Both appear similar to their depictions on modern Ordnance Survey mapping (see 5). To the west of the farmhouse is a further rectangular building.

<5> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Land Line and Master Map Vector Maps, (17/02/2023) (Maps and Plans). SCH4491.

The barn is labelled 'ruin'.

<6> The GeoInformation Group, 2005, 1940s RAF Aerial Photographs from Operation Review, 106G UK 622, 10/08/1945 (Aerial Photograph). SCH4608.

All three buildings are visible on this aerial photograph.

<7> Huntings Surveys Ltd, 1971-1973, 1971-1973 County Survey, HSL UK 73 57, Run 27 no.1939, 16/05/1973 (Aerial Photograph). SCH4881.

All three buildings are visible on this aerial photograph.

<8> Airviews Ltd, 1983-5, 1983-1985 Airviews Survey, Line 7 no.32273, 08/1983 (Aerial Photograph). SCH5296.

All three buildings are visible on this aerial photograph.

<9> National Remote Sensing Centre Ltd, 1992-3, National Remote Sensing Centre County Survey (1992-1993), 131/93_037, 22/10/1993 (Aerial Photograph). SCH5297.

Two buildings are visible on this aerial photograph. The western rectangular building has been demolished. The barn still retains its roof.

<10> Garry Miller Historic Building Consultancy, 2020, Proposed Development at 103 Cinnamon Lane North, Cinnamon Brow, Warrington, Cheshire: Heritage Assessment (Client Report). SCH9353.

Site originally comprised the house and barn, and a small (now lost) outbuilding (see 11). The rear wing of the house is shorter and the pigsties are absent from the barn. By 1892 (see 4) the remainder of the rear wing of the house had been added, as had the pigsties attached to the barn. A new large building had been built to the west of the house (this was demolished by 1963). By 1907 (see 12) a small building had been built to the south of the house. This is possibly a privy and is now lost.

House: Comprises a main block to the front and narrow rear wing. The house is of a centralised, double-depth plan with end chimneystacks, but the rear rooms appear to originally have lain within a single-storey outshut. This was later heightened to two storeys under a flat roof in the mid-twentieth century. The main range is probably early-mid eighteenth century, but does incorporate beams with characteristics dated to the early to mid-seventeenth century, suggesting a precursor on the site. This was then remodelled in the early-mid nineteenth century.

The rear wing was built in three stages, with an original early-mid nineteenth century two-storey element adjoining the main range, followed by a mid-nineteenth century single storey addition with gabled roof and a further single-storey element with single-pitch roof of the mid-later nineteenth century.

Barn: Comprises a main range combining a threshing barn on a north-south axis with stable at the south end, and possibly a shippon at the north, along with a rear wing containing a further stable and pigsty. The brickwork of the main range and stable portion of the rear wing indicates a late eighteenth or even early nineteenth century date. The pigsty date from the mid-nineteenth century. The barn was extensively damaged by fire in the 1990s.

<11> Ordnance Survey, 1842-1893, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 6 inch to 1 mile - Lancashire, SJ69SW, 1845-47 (Maps and Plans). SCH3844.

<12> Ordnance Survey, 1907-8, Ordnance Survey First Revision County Series (Epoch 2) 25 inch to 1 mile - Lancashire, SJ6291, 1907 (Maps and Plans). SCH7233.

<13> Garry Miller Historic Building Consultancy, 2021, Barn at 103 Cinnamon Lane North, Cinnamon Brow, Warrington, Cheshire: Supplementary Heritage Statement Analysing the Date of the Barn (Client Report). SCH9354.

<14> Historic England, From 2015, Notification of inclusion, amendment or removal from the List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, Goodyear-Smith V, 26/04/2023 (Written Communication). SCH7787.

It originally formed part of a late-eighteenth century to early-nineteenth century farmstead and was altered and extended by the addition of a mid- nineteenth century loose box and a late- nineteenth century pigsty. The design and plan form of the barn is typical of many similarly modest threshing barns built at the turn of the eighteenth century and nineteenth century. Like many other barns in Cheshire and south of Lancashire it was adapted during the mid- to late nineteenth century as a shippon, to respond to the growth in demand for milk. The nineteenth century timber shippon stalls were removed during the mid-twentieth century and replaced by modern concrete milking stalls.

The farmstead is no longer intact, with all buildings apart from the barn and the farmhouse having been demolished, leaving the two buildings standing in isolation. The barn was gutted by a severe fire during the early 1990s, resulting in the destruction of the roof, the collapse of the apex of both gables, along with the timber floors above the shippons, with outward movement of walls, and the loss of original timber fittings and windows. The threshing and shippon doors survived the fire, however, they are severely scorched and burnt on internal surfaces. Since the fire, the barn has been in a roof-less derelict condition, with scrub and mature trees growing within and the remaining surviving timber fittings suffering from natural decay.

Although the barn was built during the period of the Agricultural Revolution, it does not exhibit any innovation and has no known historical associations with any person of note, either as an individual or with an 'Improving' agriculturalist.