Thorpe Hall

Thorpe Hall is a country house, largely dating from around 1740, although it incorporates earlier fabric in its rear wings. Significant alterations were made internally and to the rear wings during the third quarter of the 18th century. The front of the house is built of ashlar stone, while the rest of the building is of rubble or roughly-coursed squared stone with cut dressings, all under graduated Lakeland slate roofs. The plan consists of ranges arranged around a small square courtyard, roofed over in the 19th century, with a north range extending to the west.

The east front is two and three storeys high, with a symmetrical design of 2 + 3 + 2 bays. The three-storey central section features a plinth, a sill band at ground floor level, a moulded eaves cornice, and a parapet with recessed panels and moulded coping. The central double doors have fielded panels and are topped by a two-pane fanlight. The windows are four-pane sashes, with round arches on the ground floor, except for renewed twelve-pane sashes on the second floor. Ground-floor window openings have archivolts and moulded imposts; the door and upper-floor windows have triple keystones. Coped gables have stepped and corniced end stacks, and the two-storey end sections have a moulded first-floor cornice. Original rainwater pipes and heads are present.

The left return displays a gabled end of the east range with two arched ground-floor windows. A flush-panelled door, set within an architrave with a cornice, is adjacent to a large stair window with an archivolt on a moulded impost and renewed glazing. To the left is a gabled end of the west range, with a later 19th-century canted bay. Further back, on the far left, are three bays of the three-storey north range, with four-pane sashes.

The rear of the right return is three storeys high and consists of seven irregular bays. Irregular quoins of what is likely a medieval range are visible on the right of the left-end bay. A variety of sash windows are present, one of which has a re-set lintel dated 'May 1736' with the initials C.W.

The interior of the house features fielded-panel doors within architraves with pulvinated friezes and cornices. Original 18th-century cornices and pedimented overmantels are found in rooms flanking the entrance hall. The northern room, described as a business room, also has a chair rail with a Greek key frieze and a domed fireside cupboard. The dining room has an altered 19th-century cornice and art nouveau door plates. The library contains 19th-century features in an 18th-century style. A cut-string dogleg staircase includes richly carved umbrella balusters, a moulded and wreathed handrail, a curtail step, and panelled undersides to the stone treads. The stair hall has a panelled dado, a pedimented surround to the stair window, and a rich cornice. A blocked window with an ovolo-section mullion is visible behind the retaining wall (stoothing) on the west wall. Bedrooms in the central block of the east range feature moulded stone fireplaces with plaster overmantels and cornices. The former kitchen includes a segmental fireplace arch in a raised and chamfered surround.

A house on the site was likely built by the Wycliffe family in the 13th century. In 1743, it was sold by the Inglebys to Christopher Wilkinson, their former tenant. Wilkinson may have already made some alterations, evidenced by the west range doorhead, and constructed the new east front after his purchase.