17th-century farmhouse in the Yorkshire Dales with 1920s graffiti to be brought back into residential use for first time in over 100 years

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority gave applicant Mr J Alderson permission to convert Mike House in the hamlet of Angram in Muker, Upper Swaledale, back into a home after it had been used for agriculture since the late 19th century.

Although the smallholding has been remodelled several times, it retains windows from the 17th century and other heritage features, including graffiti on the walls relating to sheep clipping in 1929, and the remains of a fireplace.

Historic buildings consultant Peter Ryder, who prepared a report on its condition, noted a recess in a wall that could once have been a salt box, the base of an old staircase, the outline of a blocked door and stumps from the joists of an earlier ceiling that had been replaced. He believed one of the fireplaces to date back to the 18th century.

He described the main part of the building as ‘difficult to interpret’ but likely to date from the late 17th or early 18th centuries and which would once have had a roof thatched with heather and three rooms on each floor. It was remodelled between the dates of its appearances on maps from 1854 and 1891. He speculated that it fell out of residential and into farm use in the late 19th century, as was common with similar sites in the area.

Approving repair works to prepare Mike House for reoccupation, the Authority described the plans as ‘sympathetic’ to historic character.

They advised that certain archaeological features were surveyed and recorded before being concealed as part of the development.