A Day Out to Honley - Part 4

 

A view of Thirstin Road

Retracing my steps back to Old Moll Road, having had a look at the Rough Rock in Honley Quarry, I continued my day out to Honley by walking along to Thirstin Road, which was the first time that I had entered the Conservation Area- where a fine example of a three storey weaver’s cottage has 6-light mullioned windows on both the first and second floors. 

 

A weaver's cottage on Thirstin Road

 

What struck me most here was the small but very distinctive valley that has been formed in the plateau of Rough Rock, which the old Ordnance Survey maps mark as having a natural rock face named Tor Rocks. Its southern end had a mill pond that served the Thirstin Mills, which occupied the west side, but the stream feeding it is mainly culverted. 

 

The valley cut into the Rough Rock at Thirstin Road

The mill has been demolished and the site is occupied by a modern houses that, like many other new developments in Honley, is built with three storeys and has multi-light mullioned windows that are in keeping with the original weavers’ cottages. 

 

Modern housing on the site of Thirstin Mills

I took a quick diversion up to Nos. 66-70 Thirstin Road, a group of three Grade II Listed houses dating from the late C18 to the mid C19, before continuing up the valley and noting various cottages on the roadside, with modern houses on the upper slopes that are again built with multi-light mullioned windows. 

 

Various houses on Thirstin Road

 

Passing the Grade II Listed Sundial House (c.1870), which I could only get glimpses of behind large hedges, approaching Scotgate Road I noticed that an addition to the original boundary wall on the east side of Thirstin Road is built with very coarse pebbly Rough Rock, which contrasts with the much more uniform fine/medium grained sandstone seen in Honley Quarry. 

 

Very coarse grained Rough Rock with pebbles

Turning into Scotgate Road, the mid C19 Nos. 1, 3, and 5 are further examples of weavers’ cottages with multi-light mullioned windows and, a little further up the road, I noticed that the Rough Rock is exposed in the garden of No. 9. and behind No. 1A. 

 

Nos. 1-5 Scotgate Road

 

Returning to Thirstin Road, my next stop was Nos. 10-13 Well Hill, a Grade II Listed terrace of four early to mid C19 weaver’s cottages which, to accommodate their conversion to completely residential premises, have had some of the windows blocked up. 

 

Nos. 10-13 Well Hill

I always like to see the natural bedrock used for the foundations of buildings and here there are a couple of exposures of the Rough Rock, which have been incorporated into the north side of the house and the garden wall. 

 

An outcrop of Rough Rock on Well Lane

Continuing up Thirstin Road to the roundabout, the next building on my list to photograph was the late C18 or early C19 Grade II Listed Nos. 5 and 7 Moor Bottom. At this point, I noticed that some kind of event was taking place further along Moor Bottom, which was being organised by the Honley Village Community Trust, so I went to investigate. 

 

Nos. 5 and 7 Moor Bottom

 

After taking a couple of photos of the unlisted Trinity Methodist and United Reformed Church, an attractive Victorian building that doesn’t seem to say much about its architectural history on its website, I returned to the roundabout.

 

Trinity Methodist and United Reformed Church

 

Before heading off to Cuckoo Lane to continue with my Photo Challenge, I stopped very briefly to took at Honley library, an inter-war building that was part of the creation of West Lane, which has a very unsual detail formed by the windows and eaves.

 

Honley library