Ellershope, The Eastern House With Byre Adjoining

The Eastern House with Byre adjoining is an early 19th-century house and byre situated in an isolated location in the North Pennines. The byre is constructed of stone rubble with roughly cut quoins and a roof of stone slates. The attached house is built of carefully coursed stone under a 20th-century slate roof.

The building presents a small, linear farmstead plan with both domestic and animal housing. The main (south) elevation of the house is two storeys and two bays, featuring 20th-century replacement windows and a door. The byre, to the right, has three bays, a slightly lower eaves line, and a line of slit vents just below the eaves. An off-centre doorway is present on the byre, alongside evidence of other blocked openings on either side. The right return shows a doorway and evidence of a raised roofline. The rear (north) elevation of the house includes a contemporary outshut that has been raised in height with two modern roof lights, a central door, and windows to either side. The byre’s rear elevation has five slit vents and two pitching doors above. Evidence of a blocked central doorway and a blocked opening at the right end is also present.

The interior of the byre retains one original roof truss with notched-in collars, a central longitudinal feeding passage with cobbled surfaces and a drainage gulley edged by a stone kerb, partial remains of a transverse wall, and two openings connecting to the adjacent house at ground and first floor level. The ground floor of the house retains the original chimneybreast, stone flagging, and a stone shelf in the larder. The first floor, with an altered plan, contains a Victorian fireplace, register grate, and hearth slab.

The building is depicted on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1895 and is likely early 19th century in date, with the byre believed to be the earliest part of the complex.

The building has group value and is notable for the survival of its external fabric, original features, simple vernacular plan form, and noteworthy internal features. It is a good example of a simple 19th-century linear range of house and byre and meets the criteria for listing a vernacular building of that date.