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Summary

Description

Asymmetrical house of 17th century origin, much altered in

19th and 20th centuries, supposedly the site of St Lawrences

Chapel and Well.

Painted/harled rubble building, walls approximately 2ft 8ins

thick; rectangular plan with central, E and W gables.

Original house to centre and W gable, latter has 20th century

canted bay slapped through, E bay is 19th century addition.

17th century house: wide bay to W, chamfered windows to

ground and 1st; 3-bay central block with enlarged 19th

century windows to ground and 1st, central roll-moulded

doorpiece. The door has probably been heightened as the top

jamb and lintel mouldings are of a different, thicker section

moulding. All windows sash and case with small-pane glazing.

The western internal gable wall is unusually thick and

accomodates a large roll-moulded fireplace (now partly

blocked, but having the character of a cooking hearth) at the

NW it gives access to the W apartment and to a large and

carefully worked newel stair which rises to attic level. The

N wall has been so altered in 1930s to allow a full-height

extension as to be unrecognisable. Slate roofs with coped end

and axial stacks, probably reroofed and stacks rebuilt in

19th-century.

Interior: apart from the plan of the 17th century house which

on the ground floor remains relatively intact and the main

chimneypiece, there is a well preserved bipartite moulded

aumbry to the ground floor N wall, with stencilled

decorations to margins. Large and fine red sandstone wheel

stair to N at internal gable rises to full height giving

awkward access to attics.

Statement of Special Interest

Fairgirth is an extemely interesting house with a complex

building history. The variety of chamfers and roll-mouldings

as well as the aumbry suggest much re-use of earlier

materials. The uneasy junction of the stair and attic floor

suggests the roof level has been considerably lowered at some

time.

References

Bibliography

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