Main Street in Winster - Part 2

 

A detail of Tomkins Cottage

Since alighting from the No. 172 bus in Winster outside Winster Hall, it had taken an hour and forty five minutes to walk just less than 1.9 km back to my starting point on Main Street and I had photographed 42 of the 53 listed buildings for my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge. 

 

A circular walk around Winster starting at Winster Hall

 

Next on my list was the early C18 Denver House, built in reddened gritstone and squeezed into a narrow plot, with its gable end fronting the street and still retaining its shop window, but I just took  a few general photos from the opposite side of the road and didn’t look closely at it.

 

Denver House

 

The late C18 Old Brewhouse, which is listed for its group value only, is described by Historic England (HE) as being built with course gritstone rubble, but it looks to me like the walling is mainly dolomitised Carboniferous Limestone with a few isolated blocks of reddened gritstone, which is also used for the dressings. 

The Old Brewhouse

The HE description, which was originally dated 12th July 1967 with a minor amendment on 15th February 2013, refers to C20 top hung shop windows on the ground floor, but these have since been replaced with sash windows to match those on the upper storeys and their window jambs and the head of the right hand window have been replaced. 

 

Stanfree House (R) and Keystone House (L)

 

Buff and reddened gritstone is certainly used for the adjacent pair of late C18 cottages, named by HE as Stanfree House and Adjoining House, with the latter since given the name Keystone House, which relects the keystone in the door surround that looks like a later alteration. 

 

Moot House

Moot House and The Cottage is descibed by HE as a terrace of three houses that was originally a single house, which they date as mid C18 with C19 alterations and refer to "single early C19 bow shop front, C20 bow window and C19 glazed double doors to west end", but this doesn't correspond with its current appearance. 

 

Tompkins Cottage

 

On the village website, it is mentioned that the numbering the houses is inconsistent and an address map has been devised, which shows that Moot House is identified by its green painted woodwork and The Cottage, renamed Tomkins Cottage, immediately to the east of it – with its former use as a wholesale and retail dealer in small wares being recorded by the painted lettering on the door lintel.

 

The west and south elevation of the Winster shop

 

Across the road is the building decribed as Woodhays, which was formerly built as a house in the mid C18, with subsequent alterations, but which is now the community owned village shop. The gable end facing Main Street is built with rock-faced reddened gritatone with the west elevation bult with a mixture of cream coloured dolomitised limestone, grey unaltered limestone and occasional blocks of gritstone. 

 

The north and east elevations of the Winster shop

 

The east elevation is built with a similar mixture of cream and grey limestones for the walling and gritstone for the dressings, which include band courses that form a continuation of the sills and heads to the windows – some of which are blocked up – with massive stones used for the lintels and surrounds to the central doorway and the former doorway on the first floor. 

 

The Old Bakehouse

 

Taking a diversion down Woodhouse Lane, the C17 Old Bakehouse has some C18 alterations and is built with coursed limestone rubble walling that contains a few blocks of gritstone, with the latter being used for the dressings and Welsh slate for the roof. 

 

Nos. 2 and 3 Woodhouse Lane

Nos. 2 and 3 Woodhouse Lane are another pair of C18 cottages that possess no great architectural merit, but they are listed for their group value and the same materials are used, with the exception that No. 3 is roofed with plain tiles. 

 

Inglenook

 

The adjoining Inglenook comprises two single-bay early C18 cottages, built with coursed limestone rubble walling with some gritstone, which have been converted into one house with the doorway to the south cottage being blocked up with gritstone. 

 

Woodhays

 

Making my way back towards Main Street, I turned left into a yard where there is an unlisted cottage that is also named Woodhays, which makes me wonder if the the village shop has not been correctly named, and nestled in the corner is Rosedene.  

 

Rosedene

 

Yet another example of a mid C18 cottage, it is again built with a mixture of limestone rubble and roughly squared and coarsed gritstone for the walling and massive gritstone for the quoins and dressings, with its roof retaining its original stone slates, but it is again listed for its group value. 

 

The house to the north of Dene Croft

 

At right angles to Rosedene is the C18 House to the North of and Adjoining Dene Croft, which yet again has a mixture of dolomitised and unaltered limestone mixed with gritstone for the walling. Its most prominent feature is the use of very large blocks of massive gritstone for the quoins and for the surrounds to the entrance doorway and the carriage entrance. 

 

Dene Croft

 

Returning to Main Street, the last building on my Photo Challenge was Dene Court, another substantial reddened gritstone mid C17 house that has retained its stone slate roof. As with just about every other listed building that I seen in Winster, the extremely dull HE description provides no insight into the history of this very interesting village, which thrived on lead mining. 

 

The Main Street elevation of Dene Croft

Being conscious that I was now encroaching on private land, I took a very quick look at its east elevation, where the adjoining yard is floored with very irregularly sized paving and very large setts, which were probably quarried from the Corbar Grit. 

 

The east elevation of Dene Croft

With 18 minutes left before my bus arrived, I had a good chat about the local geology and lead mining history with someone who was manning the marquee outside the Market House, before returning to the Winster Hall bus stop where I met the Sheffield U3A Bus Explorers Group. 

 

The marquee outside the Market House

 

They informed me that they had caught the X17 bus from Sheffield to Matlock and then the No. 172 bus to Winster, because their experience was that the No. 218 TM Travel bus between Sheffiled and Bakewell, which I had used in the morning, was very unreliable.

 

The bus stop outside Winster Hall on Main Street