Introduction

Firstly some background:
This blog is mainly to enable a record of finds and to show historic and conservation photos of any aspect found to be interesting enough during the refurbishment in 2015-16.
Prior to these conservation works an historic building survey was undertaken by S.Haigh and extracts are shown below;

The grade II* listed farmhouse at Hoathwaite has origins of c. 1600 and is of special interest

primarily because of its interior, which retains much of its early plan form, as well as

extensive fabric and fixtures, particularly the 17th and 18th century joinery including

panelling, numerous doors, a parlour bed cupboard, closed well staircase and spice cupboards.

Southern elevation, note the lane to the west side.

West elevation, including a glimpse of the down house to the north

Hoathwaite is a farm situated on low-lying land about 500m west of Coniston
Water. It comprises a number of buildings, in which the farmhouse forms an L-shaped block at its core, with the garden and historic front facing south, but with the everyday entrance in the west side. At the north end of the farmhouse is the adjoining “down-house”, and to the north-east are various farm buildings.

It appears that Roger de Brackenbarrow gave Hoathwaite to Conishead Priory in the middle ages, and there is a record of a dwelling there in 1332. In the early 17th century, members of two families resident at Hoathwaite made wills (the Addisons and the Atkinsons), suggesting there were two separate farms there at that time. Of the Addisons, John died in 1607 and left his messuage to his son Richard, who died in 1639. The latest record of the family in the registers is from 1656 and it is possible that the farm became a single property around this time.

The present south wing was built around the end of the 16th century as a threebay house of two and a half storeys, the ground floor comprising a firehouse at the west end, with unheated parlour to the east. Shortly afterwards the house was extended to the north by a wing of two bays, with the room in the north end of the wing (the present kitchen) being heated, and therefore perhaps replacing the original firehouse in the south wing (which may then have become used more as a parlour). The fact that both wings have upper cruck trusses of the same form suggests either that the south wing was re-roofed when the north
wing was added, or that both were built within a relatively short space of time; in either case, both wings are likely to have been completed by the early 17th century. At a later date, perhaps in the 17th or 18th century, another heated kitchen or down-house was added at the end of the north wing, and in the 19th century a lean-to pantry was added on the east side of the building in the angle between the two wings. Also in the 19th century, all the windows in the front of the south wing, and most of those in the north wing, were enlarged and given new, milled sandstone sills.

There will be more photos through the blog to show the bed cupboard, truss timbers, paneling, spice cupboards and other details.