Scalegate barn and smokehouse

Summary

Barn, 17th century, extended in the later 18th century incorporating a smoke house.

Reasons for Designation

Scalegate barn and smokehouse, of later C17 date with C18 and C19 additions and modifications, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a good example of a Westmorland barn with smokehouse in the local vernacular, which contributes to our understanding of regional diversity, construction and materials;

* it retains good survival of original and early structural fabric, including mass walling, door and window openings, and timberwork and carpentry;

* rural smokehouses are rare nationally and this example, of unusually large-scale production to serve the wider remote community, is of considerable interest;

* the simple smoking process is highly legible in the physical fabric through the survival of significant features, including the fireplace with smoke hood, ventilation control, and the hanging method.

Historic interest:

* it provides insight into the methods and organisation of meat preservation in remote farming communities during the C18 and C19.

Group value:

* it shares a spatial, historic and functional group value with the adjacent Grade II listed Scalegate Farmhouse.

History

This building is depicted on the first edition Ordnance Survey map published in 1860. It is shown with a similar footprint to that of today, with the exception of two small outshuts, which by the map revision of 1897 had been removed to produce the current L-shape plan. Analysis of the historic fabrics indicate that the building originated in the C17 as a rectangular barn with a principal opening at the south-east gable. In the later C18 the barn was extended by an additional short range attached to the south-east gable. The extension created additional space for a loft and a sink mow. Subsequently, in the later C18 or early C19 a cross wall was inserted within the barn extension to create a smokehouse, complete with a substantial fire hood and about 136 wooden hooks for air-curing hams. In 1936 the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England made a photographic record of the smoke hood. They identified it as domestic in nature, but recent analysis clearly indicates that it is not domestic as it lacks associated features such as fire beam, fire window and associated salt/spice alcoves. The hood also spans the axis of the building rather than across the width of the building in domestic style.

Smokehouses are rare survivals nationally, and in Cumbria most identified examples are small, domestic outfits, and even farm piggeries were modest in size. Domestic curing of hams was therefore usually limited to a dozen or so meat hooks in a larder or fixed to a fire beam in an inglenook. Even Gentry style houses, such as the Grade I listed Coniston Hall hung no more than 25 cured meats within its Tudor fireplace. It is therefore considered that capacities above this level were commercial in nature. Scalegate smokehouse is therefore identified as a small-scale commercial smokehouse which would have served its local markets. It fell out of use in 1936 when the Manchester Corporation banned pig and cattle farming in the area to focus on the construction of Haweswater Reservoir.

Details

Barn, C17, extended in the later C18 incorporating a smokehouse.

MATERIALS: local random stone rubble with stone dressings; graduated Westmorland slate roof coverings.

PLAN: L-shaped, situated immediately adjacent to a single-track road. The original C17 part is rectangular, to which was added an C18 short rectangular projection.

EXTERIOR: a two-storey L-shaped agricultural building with prominent quoins beneath pitched roofs of graduated slate. The north-east elevation has a secondary double entrance, now supported by a steel joist. To the right there is a single window to each floor, the ground floor window has moulded stone lintel and jambs, and splayed reveals, and that to first floor has a plainer stone lintel and sill. The right return has an inserted entrance with a concrete lintel. The rear south-west elevation has a low inserted opening with a concrete lintel. To the right of this there is an original low opening with rustic stone lintel and jambs; a rise in ground level has obscured further similar windows on this elevation which are clearly visible internally. The rear elevation also has a wide pitching door and a second inserted opening with a concrete lintel. The left return is blind, save for an owl hole to the apex and there are rough lines of through stones. Attached to the west end of the original barn there is a projecting north-south range. Its west elevation has an original entrance with chamfered long and short quoins and a renewed concrete lintel. The south gable and the east elevations are blind. All doors and door frames are C19 plank and batten doors.

INTERIOR: the original phase of the barn has concrete floors to the undercroft and internal walls are mostly unplastered masonry. Original rustic joists span the width of the building supporting boarded floors above. Its roof structure is modern sawn timber. The original south-east double opening (enclosed by the barn extension) retains a timber post and plank screen which formerly closed off the original barn entrance. The C18 extension incorporates a hay loft with a sink mow where feed would be dropped from the first floor to livestock below; this part has a double purlin C18 roof structure. An inserted full-height stone wall separates this feature from the smokehouse; the wall has small ventilation holes to manage the draught through the smoke hood, and an upper large access opening for the retrieval of hams. The smokehouse walls are plastered and finished with limewash, for hygiene reasons, and it retains its C18 triple purlin roof structure. It also retains a substantial smoke hood comprising a timber frame with lath and plaster to the hood, and the lower part of a stone chimney flue. There is a timber framework around the flue with about 136 wooden pegs for smoking hams.

Sources

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

Websites
Bampton-Commons-Community-History-Project-Report, accessed 13-05-2025 from https://www.bampton-history.org.uk/members/Bampton-Commons-Community-History-Project-Report.pdf

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