Building record MDR10896 - Ashmore Farm, 31 High Street, Tibshelf

This is a two-storey stone walled longhouse lying end-on to the street, the west gable on the site boundary, with a cart entry along the south side leading to the farmyard behind. The eastern end of the house, and perhaps all of it, was originally built with timber-framed walls and crucks standing on a stone plinth. A map of 1628 shows a building on the site which broadly agrees with the footprint of the current building. When first built, perhaps in the early 16th century, the house may not have been so long, although it probably always had attached housing for cattle. By the end of the 16th century the eaves of the western end were raised to provide better accommodation upstairs and the walls rebuilt in stone. The eastern end was later fronted in stone and the eaves raised to the same level as the western end. At the end of the 18th century the house was remodelled: the walls were raised all round to the present level; the roof was covered in slate; the cattle were no longer kept within the building; and the cellar may have been dug. The north wing was built about 1800, or a little later. It is believed that the farm buildings were erected about 1843 by the landlord, St Thomas' Hospital, and the end of the building which had been occupied by the cattle became a dairy. In the 1870s the cattle came back into the house, and remained there until after the second world war, when this part of the building again became a dairy. (1)