Historic Architecture in Woolley – Part 1

 

The sheep dip on New Road

Alighting from the No. 59 bus at the Barnsley Road stop, at the start of my exploration of Woolley, I walked down to the crossroads and headed east along New Road where, after a few hundred metres, I came to a section of the field boundary wall where the lowest courses are weathered to reveal a very iron rich sandstone. 

 

A boundary wall on New Road

Looking more closely, the rusty brown beds that have a concentration of iron oxides/hydroxides are differentially weathered to give a banded appearance, which highlights both the plane bedding and cross-bedding in this sandstone. 

 

A specimen of sandstone from the boundary wall

 

In one place, some of the stones had become dislodged and I collected a sample, which is coarse grained, with iron rich differentially weathered beds - as seen on a larger scale in the boundary wall - but there is no obvious graded bedding. 

 

 A view of the Building Stones of England Database map explorer

 

Looking at the Building Stones of England Database map explorer, the area around Woolley is underlain by the Woolley Edge Rock, with several quarries marked on the prominent escarpment overlooking the M1 motorway to the west of the village. 

 

The gates and lodges to Woolley Hall

 

A little further down the road, I stopped to photograph the pair of early C19 Grade II Listed lodges and gatepiers at the entrance to Woolley Hall, but these were largely overgrown by ivy  and blackened and I didn't look closely at the stonework. 

 

A distant view of the buildings at the Home Farm

 

Continuing along New Road, I passed the private road to the former Home Farm at Woolley Hall which, from initial research using Goole Map Street View, I knew would stop me from getting access to a cluster of listed buildings there; however, a little further on, I got a distant view of parts of these and was able to take photos of the early C19 No. 1 Home Farm Yard and Home Farm Cottage using the zoom lens on my Panasonic Lumix TZ100 camera.

 

No. 1 Home Farm Yard and Home Farm Cottage

 

Arriving at Woolley, I had to look twice before I realised that the houses on Old Mount Farm are part of a recent development, where the use of reclaimed sandstone and stone slates for the roof - presumably a requirement of it being built within the Woolley Conservation Area - fit in with the character of the rest of the village. 

 

Views of the Old Mount Farm development

 

At the bend in the road is a sheep dip that once served all of the farms in the village, which probably dates from the C18 but, although a short section is marked on the Ordnance Survey map, the stream was not flowing at the time of my visit. 

 

The sheep wash

 

I have only once encountered a sheep pen adjoining Sheepwash Bridge on the River Wye at Ashford-in-the-Water in the Peak District National Park, which is very simple. The arrangement of the sheep dip here, which is also registered as a Scheduled Monument, is much more complex and includes a sunken trough and drainage channels. 

 

The sheep pen

On the opposite side of the road, the three storied Grade II Listed Mount Farmhouse (1719) provides an imposing entrance to the old village, with its double-pile plan and 3-bay symmetrical facade built in sandstone ashlar.

 

The south elevation of Mount Farmhouse

Due to the narrowness of the street, its position behind the high boundary wall and overhanging trees, it wasn’t easy to get a good view of its principal elevation, which is presumably architect designed and intended to reflect the status of the owner. 

 

Mount Farmhouse

 

The gatepiers and the flanking boundary walls are also Grade II Listed and are quite ornate, with Historic England describing them as “Pilastered piers each have base, cyma-moulded foot and cornice surmounted by heavy casement cornice with obelisk finials. Carved consoles to outer sides on square base level with chamfered coping of walls. Simple pair of cast-iron gates with dogbars with alternate arrowheads”. 

 

The gatepiers and boundary wall at Mount Farmhouse

 

Crossing back over New Road, Orchard Cottage comprises an early C18 cottage, which has been partly converted to a stable, to which has been added another cottage in the C19. I didn’t look closely at the masonry, but it is evidently iron rich and displays the differentially weathered cross-bedding that is a feature of the Woolley Edge Rock.

 

Orchard Cottage