Farnley Hey

Farnley Hey was the first project completed by Peter Womerlsey. Built for his brother John and his wife as a wedding present, its use of setting and presentation to the spectacular views offered were to become signatures of Womersley’s work. It was to be the first of three houses Peter designed for John, the last being Valley Spring in Bath, in 1968.

(Image credit: Andrew Spicer)

Many of the design elements - floor to ceiling windows, exotic materials, post and beam construction, sunken areas and open flows between internal spaces - were to become signatures of Womersley’s domestic architecture for the next decade.

(Image credit: Andrew Spicer)

It is also the structure that led Bernat and Margaret Klein to Womersley’s door, having caught sight of it while in Yorkshire, resulting in a lifetime friendship and creative collaboration that gifted us with High Sunderland and the Klein Studio in the Scottish Borders.

(Image credit: Andrew Spicer)

The rest is history*.

We are delighted to be able to share here the still photographs and video created by Andrew Spicer for Fairholme Films, with the collaboration of the current owners.

Click here to watch the short film.

(Image credit: Andrew Spicer)

• Confession time: I spent the second half of the 1970’s in Huddersfield as an articling student, the result of the strong connections between the Borders and Yorkshire woollen textile industries. The offices of the accounting firm I worked for were on the same block as Womerley’s Midland (now HSBC) bank building. Peter and the Kleins being family friends, I had met John and his family on several occasions, knew he had lived near Huddersfield - but not once did I take the time to search out Farnley Hey. An early entry on a list of missed opportunities.