Finchale Abbey Farmhouse

Finchale Abbey Farmhouse is a medieval building, altered significantly, now serving as a farmhouse and the shop for a nearby caravan site. Extensive rebuilding occurred in the first bay around 1700. The farmhouse is constructed of thinly-rendered sandstone rubble, with the first bay showing more regular stonework and raised eaves. It has a concrete-tiled roof with brick and stone chimneys. The structure follows a T-plan, aligned with the north transept of the adjacent Finchale Priory church and extending towards the river.

The farmhouse is two storeys high, with a steep slope to the left side. It comprises four bays, with the first bay being taller. A flat-roofed porch, added in the 20th century, fronts the second bay, leading to 19th-century double doors beneath an 18th-century moulded cornice. Windows have thin, flat tooled lintels and sills; the windows in the first bay are taller, with vertical glazing, while the others are smaller and contain 20th-century glazing. The roof is steeply pitched, except above the raised first bay. Three ridge chimneys are present: one of rubble between the first two bays, another of brick with an ashlar band to the right of the second bay, and a third brick chimney near the right end.

The left return features a two-storey canted bay with large masonry on the ground floor; the lowest courses appear to be medieval with a plinth. The first floor windows are sash windows with glazing bars, topped with a dentilled cornice and a high pent hipped roof. The right return originally had either buttresses or a short wall extending from the front, but this has been removed. A rear wing, abutting the second and third bays, contains a low shop door on its inner return and varied windows. Some large quoins are visible between bays; the other return is obscured by a 20th-century addition.

Inside, the two right bays exhibit roughly-chamfered beams and wide joists, with a fireplace on the cross wall to the left of the third bay. Similar joists are found in the rear wing. A wide T-plan staircase is located to the right of the second bay, featuring a ramped grip handrail on a boxed-in balustrade. On the first floor, two short flights of steps lead to rear passages on either side of the centre. A corbelled medieval fire-hood is situated between the third and fourth windows, with a later cross wall abutting the centre of the fire; a 19th-century fireplace is on the right-hand gable end. The first bay on the first floor features early 18th-century panelling above a dado rail, with a corniced chimney-piece featuring a pulvinated frieze on the cross wall to the right. The roof structure comprises crown-posts and collar purlins, with wall posts and curved braces to three bowed beams visible below the first-floor ceiling in the three right bays. The roof space, partially inspected, reveals long down braces from square-section crown posts to tie beams, and longitudinal braces from posts to collar purlin. There is a plastered gable, with a doorway, between the first and second bays with collars to all rafters.

Historically, it was believed to have been a granary, but this is now considered unlikely given the first-floor fireplace. It may have been connected to a mill thought to be located on the riverbank to the north of the house. The Priory is locally known as Finchale Abbey.