Oxendale Hall, Osbaldeston, Lancashire
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OXENDALE HALL, OSBALDESTON, LANCASHIRE Heritage Impact Statement for Cruck Barn 2017 Oxendale Hall – Cruck Barn Heritage Impact Statement The Architectural History Practice Ltd 2017 CONTENTS 1.INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the Report .................................................................................... 2 1.2 Purpose of the Report ........................................................................................... 2 1.3. Location ................................................................................................................. 2 1.4. Copyright ............................................................................................................... 2 1.5 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................... 2 2. HISTORY AND CONTEXT .............................................................................. 4 2.1 Historical background .......................................................................................... 4 2.2 Historic form and phasing of the barn ............................................................ 10 2.3. Later alterations to the barn ............................................................................ 20 2.4 Context: Cruck barns in Lancashire and the vernacular tradition. ............. 21 3. SIGNIFICANCE ........................................................................ 23 3.1 The concept of significance ................................................................................ 23 3.2. Significance of the Building and Site Designations ...................................... 24 3.3. The setting .......................................................................................................... 24 4. IMPACT ASSESSMENT ............................................................ 27 4.1 Background .......................................................................................................... 27 4.2 Summary of the Proposals ................................................................................ 28 4.3 Impact of the changes ........................................................................................ 31 5.0 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................... 32 6.0 SOURCES ............................................................................................................ 34 Cover photo: Campbell Driver Partnership Oxendale Hall Barn Heritage Impact Statement 2017 1 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the Report The report was commissioned from the Architectural History Practice by Ciara Naessens of Campbell Driver Partnership on behalf of Mr and Mrs Glassbrook, the owners of the building. Oxendale Hall Barn is a Grade II* listed building, and stands within the curtilage of Oxendale Hall which is also listed Grade II*. Research using published and unpublished sources was undertaken, and the site and buildings were assessed in May 2016. Pre- application discussions with Ribble Valley Borough Council and Historic England took place early in 2016, when the principle of some alterations to the barn was broadly supported, subject to details. 1.2 Purpose of the Report The report is designed to provide: A summary of the context, history and development of Oxendale Hall Barn A statement of significance of the building An assessment of the impact of proposals on the significance of the building and the setting. The first two sections have been used to inform a scheme of proposals to refurbish the barn for a use ancillary to the domestic use of Oxendale Hall. The impact section has been written to support an application for listed building consent. 1.3. Location Oxendale Hall Barn is situated in Osbaldeston, a scattered rural area on the south side of the Ribble Valley, around 5 miles north-west of Blackburn. The address is Oxendale Hall, Osbaldeston Lane, Osbaldeston, Nr Blackburn, BB2 7LZ. The NGR is SD 65058 33401. The local planning authority is Ribble Valley Borough Council. 1.4. Copyright This report is the copyright of AHP Ltd and is for the sole use of the organisation to whom it is addressed. It may not be used or referred to in whole or in part by anyone else without the express agreement of AHP. AHP does not accept liability for any loss or damage arising from any unauthorised use of this report. ©AHP Ltd (2016) 1.5 Acknowledgements This report was prepared with assistance from Mr and Mrs Glassbrook and Ciara Naessens of Campbell Driver Partnership who supplied some of the photographs. The authors are Marion Barter BA MA, Director of the Architectural History Practice and Emma Neil, BSc MA (formerly of AHP). All photographs are by AHP unless otherwise stated. Extracts from historic maps Oxendale Hall Barn Heritage Impact Statement 2017 2 are reproduced with the permission of Lancashire Archives and the owner/depositor to whom copyright is reserved. AHP is grateful for assistance from Peter Iles of the Lancashire Historic Environment Record. Oxendale Hall Barn Heritage Impact Statement 2017 3 2. HISTORY AND CONTEXT 2.1 Historical background Oxendale Hall is within the township of Osbaldeston, historically in the parish of Blackburn. Osbaldeston and Balderston were recorded as a manor held by a freeman in Domesday (1086), and from the 13th century, it was owned by the Osbaldeston family who built Osbaldeston Hall (Grade II*). The history of Oxendale Hall is associated with the Osbaldeston family; the freehold estate belonged to a junior branch of the family. The Victoria County History, published in 1911, is the most reliable source for Lancashire history; this records that in 1508 William Osbaldeston held the Oxendale Hall estate and that by 1524 his son Robert was the owner. There would have been a house at Oxendale during their time. The Oxendale estate was inherited by Robert Osbaldeston’s oldest son Lawrence, who rebuilt the earlier Oxendale Hall in 1656-57. The datestone above the front doorway of Oxendale Hall is inscribed LRO 1656; LRO being the initials of Lawrence Osbaldeston and his wife Rosamund. The last Osbaldeston to inherit the estate was Lawrence’s son, also named Lawrence. In 1714, the Oxendale estate was sold to William Fox of Goosnargh and his son John inherited the estate following his death. William Fox owned the estate in the 1760s (his initials are on a lead hopper on the hall), and it remained in his family until 1846. Oxendale Hall was tenanted to a succession of farming families recorded in the census returns; in 1841 the tenants were recorded as the Parker family, in 1851 the Crooks and in 1861 the Singleton family. In 1874 the estate was sold to Messrs. John, Edward and Joseph Dugdale of Blackburn for £5,139. At this time the estate consisted of 76 acres of land of which 17 acres were woodlands, Oxendale Hall was then occupied as a farmhouse, with barn, shippon, stable and outbuildings (Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 22 Sept 1874). The first three functions probably took place in the large barn, as the OS map for the 1890s only shows one large farm building. The Oxendale estate remained in the ownership of the Dugdales until the death of Joseph Dugdale in 1924; it sold at auction in separate lots in 1926 (The Lancashire Daily Post, 24 Feb 1926). By 1927 the farm was owned by John Roland Hodgson who submitted proposals for a farmhand’s cottage to the rear of the barn that year. Oxendale Hall and dairy farm were for sale again in 1936; the farm buildings in the sale particulars were described as two shippons for 23 and 10 cows, stables and Dutch barns (Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligence, 7 Nov 1936). By then, the farmstead had expanded with new buildings (see map in Fig.6). At a date not established, the ownership of Oxendale Hall Farm (including the barn) was separated from Oxendale Hall. The last owner of Oxendale Hall Farm prior to acquisition by the present owners was the Chappell family. The hall was acquired by the present owners in 1995/6 and the farm buildings were subsequently purchased to reunite the property. Oxendale Hall Barn Heritage Impact Statement 2017 4 The VCH, published in 1911 refers to the history of Osbaldeston and gives a brief description of Oxendale Hall, but does not mention the barn. Comparison with other cruck-farmed barns in the region indicates that the barn was probably built in the sixteenth or early seventeenth century, although dendrochronology would be required to confirm the date for the cruck timbers. The barn probably pre-dates the existing mid-17th century house and would have been associated with the earlier 16th century hall. There do not appear to be any detailed studies of the hall or barn, and the buildings are only briefly mentioned in The Buildings of England, Lancashire: North by Pevsner (Hartwell and Pevsner, 2011). The barn is listed in N.W. Alcock’s catalogue of cruck barns (1981). Historic images of the hall and barn have not been identified in any online image collections consulted for this study, including the online Lantern collection curated by Lancashire Archives. The only identified historic image is an air photograph of unknown date, probably 1960s, in the owners’ collection. There is an absence of identified historic maps covering the area in sufficient detail to be useful until the 19th century. The only county map that identifies Oxendale Hall is Greenwood’s map of 1818 which seems to show the barn to the south-west of the hall, but the track to the hall is