Chartered Institute for Archaeologists 2022

P R O F E S S I O N A L A R C H A E O L O G Y | A G U I D E F O R C L I E N T S 2 0 2 2 3 1 C A S E S T U D I E S | B U I L D I N G S A R C H A E O L O G Y A N D D E V E L O P M E N T The house has retained many features that have commonly been ripped out and have little or no record. The fragile, 18th-century timber panel partition walls are intact and the worn groove in the flagstones demonstrates how long it has defined the movement of people between the kitchen and parlour. A large inglenook in the old kitchen contains a tidy 19th-century range within an earlier stone fireplace. Within the inglenook there are multiple metal hooks, and the inner face of the fire beam has a series of crude cupboards, some with butterfly hinges. Fitted stone benches and shelving survive in the cold butteries/dairies to the rear, showing how, up until the recent past, most Lakeland farms made their own butter and cheese. The contrast between these functional aspects of the house and the quality of the 18th-century joinery in fitted cupboards, shutters and window reveals in the 18th-century extension how farmers aspired towards the aesthetic tastes of polite society during this period. The large 18th-century threshing barn and combination barn also demonstrate the prosperity of the farm and the importance of mixed agriculture in an area that, since the late 19th-century, has been best- known for its pastoral landscape grazed by sheep and cattle. In the 18th-century barns, timber stall partitions and a manger are still in place in the cattle housing. Unusually, there is still a stone-flagged threshing floor. This is so often replaced by a more practical concrete screed. Substantial numbers of roof timbers and trusses are still in good order across the site. With reference to Historic England’s Farmstead and Landscape Statement for the High Fells (https://historicengland.org.uk/research/current/discover- and-understand/rural-heritage/farmsteads-character/), it is clear that the whole group is outstanding for its evidential interest, the way that it illustrates how farming developed in the Lake District and also for the architectural and aesthetic interest of its fabric and detail. Kitchen parlour ©www.parti.global