Building record 2463/0/1 - Barrow's Farmhouse

<1> Greater Manchester Sites and Monuments Record, various, Greater Manchester Sites and Monuments Record Sheet (Unpublished Document). SCH1268.

Three storey brown brick farm house, flag roof. Near flush wood mullion 5-light casements. Floor bands. Wide boarded entrance door. Bevelled beams. Inscription on newell post "I B 1763" (Ivan Bates). Gable chimney stacks. Some side windows blocked. Rebuilt C19th and C20th.

<2> English Heritage, Listed Buildings Online (Digital Archive). SCH4761.

Farmhouse. "IB 1763" (Ivan Bates) on newel post. English garden wall bond brick with C20 tile roof. Double-depth central-staircase plan with 3 storeys. Originally a baffle entry to left but the door is now in the right gable. 2-bay 3-storey front elevation with rendered plinth and two 5-light replaced casement windows on each floor all with flat brick arches. Gable chimney stacks. 4-panel door with overlight in right gable-end. Some of the side windows are blocked and one has a brick hoodmould. The rear wall as well as much of the front and left has been rebuilt in the C19 or C20. Interior: ovolo-moulded floor beams with ogee stops to the principal rooms. Inglenook fireplace with massive curved ovolo-moulded bressumer beam. Dogleg stair with roll-moulded handrail, closed string with pulvinated frieze and dated plain rectangular newel post at half-landing.

<3> Garry Miller Historic Building Consultancy, 2018, Heritage Assessment for Barrow Farm, Croft, R4124 (Client Report). SCH8399.

The appearance of Barrow Farm (named Barrow’s Farm on historic mapping) suggests it was originally of yeoman status, i.e. the home of a middle class farmer or small landowner. While the list description notes a date of 1763 internally, it is probable that this refers to the alteration of an earlier property.

The likelihood is that the building is of circa 1700 date. This is suggested by the combination of the symmetrical façade, centralized, double-depth plan (with lower eaves to the rear), horizontal (originally mullioned) windows and the hoodmould on the north elevation. If it were of 1763, vertical sash windows would have been used and a hoodmould would have been considerably outmoded by this time. For 1700 however, the house would have been progressive in terms of its plan and appearance and therefore of some status locally.


Historic mapping demonstrates that originally much fewer outbuildings existed and the present farmyard layout, with its somewhat cluttered appearance, dates from the mid-late 20th century.