Mullender and detached barn

Summary

Farmstead comprising a farmhouse with attached barn, and adjacent detached barn, C17 with later adaptations.

Reasons for Designation

Mullender, a farmhouse of later C17 date with added agricultural building and detached barn, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* it is a good example of a modest Westmorland farmstead, which contributes to our understanding of regional diversity and local vernacular construction and materials;

* the farmhouse retains good survival of original structural fabric, including mass walling and roof structure; the latter demonstrating early carpentry techniques;

* the barn is intact with a good historic roof structure, and its threshing and storage functions are well expressed within the historic fabric.

History

Based on the surviving historic fabric, and comparison with similar buildings in this part of Cumbria, the farmhouse is considered to date from the C17. There is evidence that it originated as a rare survival of a simple hall house that was originally open to the roof structure, with at least one gable hearth. Adjacent to the farmhouse there is a single storey threshing barn with an early roof structure that could be contemporary with the house. Swindale is a remote valley, which in the Hearth Tax of between 1669 and 1672 recorded 14 households; the small farmstead of Mullender is considered to be one of these.

An entry in the Kendal Mercury of 11 September 1834 records the sale by the Earl of Lonsdale of part of his Manor of Thornthwaite. It comprised 'a customary messuage and tenement called Mullinders, in Swindale, consisting of a Dwelling House and Outhouses and diverse parcels of land containing together 22 acres or thereabouts'. Thus, it is clear that in 1834 the farmhouse was still functioning as a dwelling house; the outhouses refer to the secondary, attached agricultural building and the detached threshing barn. After 1834, the farmhouse ceased to be a domestic dwelling and its interior was converted to a byre.

This farmhouse, with western addition and a detached barn are depicted on the first edition 1:10,560 Ordnance Survey map surveyed between 1858 and 1859. They are depicted as a pair of rectangular, south-facing buildings annotated 'Mullender', and have identical footprints to that of today. The house has a semi-circular rear projection interpreted as a winder stair turret giving access to a first floor. Between the two map revisions of 1897 and 1913 a third small, rectangular building was added to the south of the house and to the west of the barn (third edition 1:2500 Ordnance Survey). This building has been demolished but given its location, it may have served as a laundry/dairy. Historic maps show that the rear winder stair was removed between 1897 and 1913.

Details

Farmstead comprising a farmhouse with attached barn, and adjacent barn, C17 with later adaptations.

MATERIALS: local stone laid in regular courses, and graduated Westmorland slate roofs.

PLAN: the rectangular farmhouse faces south onto the road, and the barn is set slightly forward of this to the east.

EXTERIOR: the original farmhouse is formed of local rubblestone with long thin quoins and a rough plinth. It has two storeys beneath a pitched roof of graduated Westmorland slate; the uneven roofline suggests the retention of a historic roof structure. The south elevation has a secondary entrance at the west end fitted with a plank door, and to the right of this there are three small ground floor windows, each with a waney timber lintel, beneath a continuous slate drip mould. A smaller window at the right end with a four-pane frame is a possible fire window, lighting a former internal inglenook. There are at least three small blocked first-floor windows, all with stone lintels. Attached to the left gable there is a secondary two-storey bay which is blind, but which has a narrow, blocked window to each floor. The left return is rendered which obscures any detailing. The right return of the house has projecting chimney supports to the apex indicating an internal hearth. To its right side, there is an original gable entrance with a timber lintel, now blocked with stone, and a slate drip mould above. The rear elevation is similarly constructed and there is a scar within the fabric indicating the position of a former external winder stair; a first-floor entrance accessed from the former stair remains in situ and is fitted with a boarded door. Other blocked openings and scars are visible within the historic fabric. The rear of the western addition has an original ground floor entrance with a timber lintel and drip mould, and an inserted first floor opening.

The threshing barn is single storey rectangular building also of local stone construction with long, narrow quoins and a boulder plinth beneath a pitched roof of graduated Westmorland slate. It is built into the higher ground at its south end. The south elevation facing onto the road has a rough line of through stones below the eaves. There is a single winnowing door fitted with a boarded door, and a stone lintel (timber behind) supported on stone corbels and a prominent threshold. A former opening at the west end is now blocked. The right and left returns are blind, and thinner courses of stone alternate with the random rubble. The rear elevation has centrally-placed double threshing doors with an inserted RSJ, and there is a blocked opening at the north end, and a partially blocked opening at the west end, now forming a large window.

INTERIOR: the farmhouse reflects its later use as a cow byre, and has a cobbled floor, a stone lined manure channel, and a row of four stalls set against the north wall. The stalls are raised on a cobbled platform edged with substantial stone blocks, and are formed of boarded timbers. The original function of the building as a dwelling is apparent in the east gable wall, where the remains of a former hearth is flanked to the right side by a pair of niches indicating the sites of spice/salt cupboards, and below this a large rectangular alcove possibly a large peat/fuel store, partly obscured by a later timber manger. To the left of the hearth is the original (blocked) gable entry with a waney timber lintel, and in the junction with the north wall there is a tall rectangular alcove. The north wall shows further evidence of domestic features, some associated with the former external stair. A scarcement just below the present inserted C20 floor, indicates the position of a former first floor. The west extension is entered through an opening in the original west gable of the house, fitted with a boarded door with strap hinges. This room has a king post roof truss of sawn timber and single purlins and rafters, all replacements.

Viewed from the hayloft above, the upper east gable retains a stone chimney flue with integral supporting timbers and a hole either side for other supports. The upper west gable retains evidence for a second chimney flue flanked to either side by similar square holes, suggesting hearths at either end of the dwelling. The roof structure is formed of triangular roof trusses of rustic and wany form, with double purlins and a ridge piece. Graffiti etched in plaster around one of the first-floor blocked windows is of 1930s date.

The detached barn retains its original early pegged and hand adzed roof structure comprising four wany triangular trusses with braces, double purlins, and a ridge piece; some members are rustic and curved in profile, and hint at the possibility that they are reused cruck elements. The rafters have been replaced. A blocked opening at the west end incorporates stone alcoves or cupboards.

Sources

Books and journals
Denyer, S, Traditional Buildings and Life in The Lake District (1991),
Brunskill, RW, Traditional Buildings of Cumbria (2002),

Websites
Shap, Rural, in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Westmorland (London,1936), accessed May 6 2025 from https://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/westm/pp206-212
Bampton Commons Community History Project 2012-2013 for ‘Common Stories’, University of Lancaster, accessed 05-05-2025 from https://www.bampton-history.org.uk/members/Bampton-Commons-Community-History-Project-Report.pdf

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