Low Barmston Farm

Most of the buildings at Low Barmston Farm were built between 1840 and 1856. However one building is shown on a map of 1802 but is much earlier than that (HER 15780). The 1802 plan shows a roughly square building, likely the farmhouse, with a range of buildings running to the east, and a narrower wing running off this range to the south. These were likely to be the farm buildings and stables along with two freestanding outbuildings. The 1840 tithe map of Barmston shows the same layout of buildings as in 1802. With the exception of the one surviving early building, the layout of these buildings does not match the present form and it is likely that these buildings were either demolished or extensively altered in order to accommodate the later Low Barmston Farm. By 1856 a plan of Low Barmston Farm surveyed by Naylor and Holmes for the Marchioness of Londonderry shows the layout of the farm buildings similar to how they appear today. By this time Low Barmston Farm House (HER 7049) has been built to the north as have the buildings of Low Barmston Farm, which at this time have included the earlier building. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1861 shows the buildings of the Low Barmston Farm as being unchanged from the layout shown in 1856 save for the demolition of a small outbuilding within the yard. Kelly’s Post Office Directory of Durham 1879 describes Barmston as ‘a small township consisting of a few scattered farms and cottages totalling 893 acres’ and also list the occupiers of Low Barmston as 1879 Dixon, William (farmer); 1890 Wilson, William (farmer); 1902 Shield, Thomas (farmer), Stephenson, John Brock (miller (water)) at Low Barmston Forge, 1910 Shield, Thomas (farmer), 1929-1938 Smith, George (farm manager to Leverson’s Wallsend Collieries Ltd). Leverson’s had their registered office at Usworth Hall, Washington at this time and operated the Usworth colliery from 1921 to 1940. The fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1939 shows that small outbuildings have been built to the north-west of Low Barmston Farm House. The reverse C-shaped range of buildings known as The Forge have been altered, with the southern half of the range demolished and replaced by a rectangular building with a narrow wing running to the north-east and a second narrow outlying building to the south-west. To the south-west a building later known as Keeper’s Cottage has been built.