Historic England
Friars Head is a Grade II* listedStructure of particular architectural and/or historic interest deserving of special protection. country house about one mile (1.6 km) south of the village of Winterburn in North Yorkshire. The current building dates from about 1670, but it must have replaced a much earlier house, as the name is mentioned in wills dating back to the early 16th century.[1][2]
In his will dated 1507 Thomas Proctor left “Frerehead” to his wife Eden and their son Thomas; the Proctor family later claimed that the tenancy had been in their possession since the mid-1300s.[3] The “friar” in the name probably relates to the monks of Furness Abbey, which owned the estate until its dissolution in 1537.[4]
Architecture
Friars Head is built in the Jacobean style, with 19th and 20th-century alterations, and has been described by the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner as “fine and slightly mysterious”.[5]
The two-storey house is built of gritstone with a stone slate roof, and consists of a hall range and two rear cross-wings. The garden front has four projecting bays, each having a gable with kneelers and ball finials, below which are mullioned and transomed windows with hood moulds, those in the top floor with three truncated-ogee lights. In the second bay is a porch with a moulded surround and imposts, a basket arch with voussoirsWedge-shaped stone or brick that in combination with others forms an arch., and a Tudor arched doorway. Above is a hood mould, and a sundial with a gnomon and a moulded surround. Inside, there is a massive inglenook fireplace, a small fireplace in the former parlour, and upstairs are three late 17th-century door surrounds.[1][6]