Building record 200/4/3 - Crewe Hall Farmhouse

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 56667 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Home Farmhouse, circa 1702, Brown brick with tile roof, double pile, two storeys and attic; five-bay garden front, two-storey, three-bay returns. Door with six raised panels, in heavy dowelled frame, with rectangular multiglazed transome light, under lead covered shell canopy, supported on brackets. Near flush wooden cross windows, with glazing bars, turning pieces, cambered arches and brick bands above, at ground floor and first floor level. The attic windows, in the stone coped twin gables, are double casements. The north elevation has a door with four flush panels, in a heavy frame, with a rectangular transome light, under a segmental canopy with short wings. The windows in this elevation are all cross window casements with glazing bars. The south elevation has a six panel door, flat headed mullion and transome windows with leaded lights and two, more recent, three-light flush casements. There is one central chimney stack per pile. Interior: Six panel doors.

<2> Gifford and Partners, 2005, Crewe Hall Farm, Cheshire; Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment, p.6-7 (Client Report). SCH4681.

The building is, in fact, two buildings physically connected. This structure is a Grade II Listed Building. Building 1a is the larger of the two farmhouses and comprises a red brick construction that supports a double gabled ceramic tile roof. In the past, the roofline has been altered to accommodate a more gradual pitch. This building probably dates to the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. Building 1b is physically connected with the larger farmhouse and probably dates to the late seventeenth century and is probably the earliest building in the farm complex.

<3> Hartwell C, Hyde M, Hubbard E & Pevsner N, 2011, The Buildings of England: Cheshire (2011 revision), p.324 (Book). SCH7059.

Late seventeenth century, but much altered in the eighteenth century.

<4> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Land Line and Master Map Vector Maps, 31/01/2019 (Maps and Plans). SCH4491.

<5> Mercian Heritage Services, 2009, Crewe Hall Farm, Cheshire: An Architectural and Archaeological Assessment of the Farmhouse, R4296 (Client Report). SCH8681.

Architectural and archaeological assessment undertaken for the former farmhouse of Crewe Hall Farm, a grade II listed building which, at the time of survey, in 2009, had been empty for some time and in a poor state of repair. It was built around 1700 as a virtually square and symmetrical double-pile brick building, two and a half storeys high and with capacious cellars. The house was built as one large dwelling but divided into two by the mid nineteenth century and then converted back to a single dwelling in the early twentieth century. Minor extensions and a cottage were added at the east end.

The prinicipal façade was a five-bay west front with central entrance, whilst the other three elevations were probably of three bays. Unusually for a double pile house of this date and status, the twin piles and their roofs ran at right angles to the principal elevation rather than parallel to it, resulting in the main elevation being topped by the twinned gables of the roof. Structurally, the desired plan of such a house - with central axial passage with rooms either side - meant that there could be no supporting brick spine wall between the two piles because of the position of the passage under the valley between them. The internal structural partitions were lath-and-plastered studwork. So, despite the fairly high quality of the external design, the fact that the brickwork was confined to the external four walls led to the integrity of the structure being affected.