Building record MDR10763 - Woodlands Farm, Chellaston, Derby

Woodlands Farm is a two-storey brick house with slate roofs. To the north on the opposite side of Woodlands Road was the farmyard, whose buildings have now been demolished and the site used for very recently-built houses. To the east the ground rises abruptly to an area much worked over, first by alabaster and plaster quarrying, then by brickworks. The history of Woodlands Farm must presumably be bound up to some extent with that of the alabaster and brick works. The house stands on a raised platform, but the natural ground level is impossible to determine. It is suggested that the original house was built at a lower ground level, and that the present cellars represent the original ground floor. When first built, perhaps in the second half of the 18th century, the house would have faced east. It was then perhaps not a farmhouse, but the home of someone like a mine manager. In the early 19th century, perhaps about 1830-4, the ground was built up around the house with large quantities of mining spoil, and the house was radically reconstructed. A map of the mine workings show an adit in the garden to the south, which might account for the raising and levelling of the ground before the plaster works were closed in 1878. The reconstruction of the house involved the building of an outer skin of brick round the ground floor, and spoil was backfilled against it. Above this a new ground floor and first floor were constructed, and the new house was extended towards the east to provide two more rooms on plan. The house now became a farmhouse and the cellars were converted for dairying and other purposes. Major changes were made in the early 20th century: the whole house was re-roofed, fireplaces and windows altered, and a leanto scullery and wash-house added. The yard was enclosed between the wars and a conservatory fitted into the corner made by the wash-house. (1)