Preston's Listed Buildings - LOWER BROCKHOLES FARMHOUSE

Preston's Listed Buildings

LOWER BROCKHOLES FARMHOUSE

Heritage Category: Listed Building (Grade II)

List Entry Number: 1292856

Location: Lower Brockholes, Brockholes Brow, Preston PR2 5AS

Lower Brockholes Farmhouse, Dated 1634 on porch, listed by Historic England

I am sure that if anybody mentions 'Brockholes' these days, most people will think of the wonderful nature reserve run by the The Lancashire Wildlife Trust. However, before the Preston Bypass (M6 Motorway) cut through the area in the 1950s, it was previously farmland. At the time it was occupied by two farmhouses, namely Higher Brockholes and Lower Brockholes. Both were former Manor Houses dating back to the seventeenth century. There was also a third property names 'Boilton', which gives it name to Boilton Wood that is at the northern edge of the nature reserve and climbs up to Red Scar. Unfortunately, only Lower Brockholes now remains.

Lower Brockholes Farmhouse, Dated 1634 on porch, listed by Historic England

Lower Brockholes Farmhouse is adjacent to a working sand and gravel quarry and is a little bit obscured from view, by some of the other farm buildings. Most people probably don't notice it. It can be viewed from the Guild Wheel and Brockholes Wood, but it is difficult to get close to. It can also be seen from the quarry access road that also provides access to the nature reserve.

A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 7, (London, 1912)

LOWER BROCKHOLES, now a farm-house, stands in a low situation close to the bend of the Ribble near Brockholes Bridge, facing east towards Samlesbury. It is a small two-story building of no particular interest architecturally, having been very much modernized and the exterior covered with roughcast. The windows are all modern, but the roof retains its grey stone slates, and the north wing, which has a separate gabled roof at right angles to that of the rest of the house, preserves its old half-timber construction above the ground floor, though much of the timber has been renewed. There is a wide open gabled porch of two stories projecting 9 ft. 6 in. and measuring 8 ft. square inside, over the archway of which is a stone dated 1634 with the initials and arms of Francis Bindloss, the arms with helm, crest and mantling, and a crescent for difference. The interior is structurally uninteresting, but a small oak staircase of good design with turned Jacobean balusters still remains, and in one of the bedrooms is some oak panelling forming a dado, on which is the inscription, 'Quamlibet expectes horam tibi ducere mortem, disce mori mundo Christoque resurgere spera, 1630.'

It is a shame that Higher Brockholes was lost. Whilst extensive quarrying happened on that side of, what is now, the M6 Motorway. It doesn't appear that any digging work was carried out in its location. From that point of view, it may not have been necessary to demolish it.

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Further reading and sources of information

The History of Brockholes - Before and After the Preston Bypass

https://www.mylancs.uk/2024/03/the-history-of-brockholes-before-and.html

Lower Brockholes Farmhouse, Dated 1634 on porch, on the Historic England website

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1292856

Lower Brockholes Farm. Sepia postcard RP-PPC by G. Cross
from the Preston Digital Archive

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rpsmithbarney/5593204263/

Brockholes photo search on the Preston Digital Archive

https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=22711538%40N07&view_all=1&text=Brockholes

Brockholes photographs from the Ralph Cross Collection
on Pennine Horizons Digital Archive

https://penninehorizons.org/search?query=Brockholes

British History Online - 'Townships: Grimsargh and Brockholes',
in A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 7, (London, 1912) pp. 108-113.

https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol7/pp108-113

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