592

 

II*  

Designated  

03/06/1991  

15/08/2001  

Parkgate Farm Farmhouse and attached Shippon  

 

Flintshire  

Northop  

Mold  

Northop  

324416  

368252  

W  

On the S edge of Northop and on a triangular site bound by roads. Reached by a narrow by-road which cuts off the NE angle of the triangle. The farmhouse faces E with shippon to N.  

Domestic  

 

Built c1863 by the Soughton estate, and shown on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey of 1870.  

Tall L-plan farmhouse in simple Gothic style, of 2 storeys and attics with rear ranges linking with shippon at right angles. Constructed of local rubble with freestone dressings under steeply pitched slate roofs with stone stacks and wide boarded eaves. Asymmetrical and stepped design to 3-bay front with chamfered angles. Advanced gable of cross-wing to L, tall 2-storey porch with saddleback roof to centre and in angle of the 2 ranges. To the R is the main range, further set back and with a half-hipped dormer. Narrow lights with sash glazing, either paired or single, and in stone surrounds. The central entrance has a shouldered stone lintel and recessed half-glazed panelled door. Single light with shouldered lintel above; single lights to N side of porch. The outer bays have single round-headed lights to the attic storey and paired lights below, round-headed to 1st floor, shouldered lintels to ground floor. Roundel to L gable apex and window to cellar. The N gable end of the main range is 1-window, detail as front. South side of cross-wing has half-hipped attic dormer to centre and 2 round-headed lights to L and R of 1st floor. Central bow window to ground floor with conical roof and round-headed lights with sash glazing. To L is a single-storey range with brick stack and late C20 window, linking with a 2-storey 1-window hipped-roof block with paired lights. At right angles is another single-storey linking range adjoining the shippon. Both linking ranges have red brick lean-to arched passages on N side (formerly continued along the rear wall of the house) and together with a brick wall, form a small rear yard; whitewashed passages, boarded doors and stone flagged floors. Brick wall contains iron panel inscribed 'Ellis & Jones, Plumber of Chester, 1863'. The rear (W) of the house has a 2-storey rendered lean-to to the R and single-storey brick lean-to to L with round-arched sash to N side. Roughly square-plan single-storey shippon facing E, with shallow hipped roof, ridge ventilator with gablets, overhanging eaves and apex finials. Symmetrical 7-bay front with 4 doorways, 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th bays from L. Boarded doors in chamfered stone surrounds with segmental heads, with roundels above, now glazed. Half-hipped gablet to centre with roundel, over a tall 3-light stone mullioned window with round-headed lights and metal-framed glazing. Similar 2-light windows to 2nd and 6th bays. Boarded hatch low down near L end with segmental head. Half-hipped gablets with roundels to centres of N and S ends. The former has a lean-to cartshed below with central opening under a gablet obscured by a timber addition. Wide entrance with timber lintel and double boarded doors to its E front. Further lean-to to R of N end. Further block to rear with half-hipped roof, a wide segmental-arched opening to centre with stone surround and double doors, with a roundel above.  

The shippon has a complex 5-bay queen-strut roof structure. Whitewashed interior, concrete floor. Cattle stalls to sides, the partitions of concrete to L and metal to R. Two planked doors leading into rear block. Door to S end and blocked segmental-headed opening to its L. No access to house.  

Listed grade II* as an unusually fine and unaltered example of a mid-Victorian estate farm.