Spennymoor Cottage And Spennymoor House

Spennymoor Cottage and Spennymoor House is a house that was originally an inn, later serving as an estate office and now divided into two houses. It dates from the early 18th century and was built for the Shafto family of Whitworth Hall, with early 19th century additions. The main house, now known as Spennymoor Cottage, is located on the right, while the left addition is now Spennymoor House.

The exterior features incised render with painted ashlar dressings, a painted plinth, and quoins. The roof is covered with French tiles and pantiles, complemented by stone gable copings and rear stone-flagged eaves. The roofs of the rear outshuts are finished with Welsh slate and synthetic stone tiles. The earlier section on the right has two low storeys and four bays, while the later addition on the left has two storeys and two bays. The original house includes a half-glazed door in the third bay, which is sheltered by a gabled 20th-century glazed porch. It has 4-pane sash windows with painted projecting stone sills, and the first-floor windows are positioned at eaves level beneath gabled dormer roofs. The right end features gable coping with a curved kneeler, banded rendered end chimneys, and a larger chimney located between the third and fourth bays.

The left addition has a half-glazed door with an overlight on the right, framed by a doorcase with fluted pilasters and an entablature, with a cornice that breaks forward over the pilasters. It features 4-pane sashes in a canted bay window on the left and in the right first-floor window, along with plain sashes in the left first-floor window. The left side has quoins, and there is a banded left end chimney on a low-pitched roof. The right return of the original building displays a stone shaped like a bull set in the gable peak, along with some throughstones. The rear outshut of Spennymoor Cottage is now part of Spennymoor House.

Historically, this building was once the only structure on Spenny Moor, erected as a commercial venture at the crossroads of the drovers' road and the Durham to Bishop Auckland road.