Narrowdale is a 335 acre estate in the Staffordshire Moorlands district of the Peak District National Park. It includes two separate farmsteads, each with a Grade II Listed farmhouse, along with around ten other curtilage listed outbuildings and extensive dry stone walling. Though the estate has National Heritage Significance, both farmhouse buildings have long been on the Local Authority’s ‘Buildings at Risk’ register due to their poor condition.

Many of the estate’s buildings are in a poor state of repair after decades of disuse, with some having suffered partial collapse. This gradual and ongoing project proposes to repair and conserve the estate’s many heritage buildings, returning them to their original uses and re-establishing the historic agricultural function of the estate.

Work began with the repair and refurbishment of Priory Farmhouse, the principal Grade II listed farmhouse at the heart of the estate. This began with an initial phase of repair and stabilising works to the exterior, which put an end to decades of water ingress and weather damage.

Extensive water ingress had led to the failure of the main roof truss in the larger attic space, causing significant damage to the roof. This badly damaged truss and other water damaged timbers were carefully repaired using traditional jointing to minimise the loss of historic fabric wherever possible.

The farmhouse was then re-roofed in Welsh slate from the original roof, with any new material sourced from the same Penrhyn quarries as the original slate. Sheep’s fleece insulation was incorporated to improve thermal performance, and the traditional stepped leadwork between the double pitched roof was carefully replaced. Stone ridge tiles and copings were removed and reused.

The windows were carefully removed and examined, and the state of each element recorded. This process allowed one window to be repaired and retained, with the others being accurately reproduced from the record information. These records were submitted to archives along with archaeological material.

Weather damaged lintels, cills, and quoins were retained in-situ wherever possible and refaced with new stone dowelled into the existing where required. The removal of cementitious strap pointing allowed the stonework to be repointed in lime mortar to match the existing, helped by mortar matching from The Lime Centre.

With the exterior stabilised and weathertight work has begun on restoring the interior using traditional materials such as lime plaster, skilled carpentry, and further stone repair.

Features such as fireplaces and casework housing window shutters have been restored wherever possible. Much of the main stair was too badly damaged to save. However, most of the original stringers have been integrated into the new timber stair structure after a careful record of the existing stair had been made.