The World Bird Research Station

The World Bird Research Station is a house built in 1796 for Richard Hatkin, with an earlier 18th-century rear wing and a west extension likely added in the mid-19th century. The front is made of tooled-and-margined ashlar, while the returns and rear are constructed from squared stone of near-ashlar quality. The west extension features tooled stone with tooled-and-margined dressings, and the rear wing is built of rubble with large squared quoins and dressings. The roof is covered with Lakeland slate, except for the Welsh slates on the rear wing and west extension.

The main house is two storeys high with three symmetrical bays. It has a plinth and sill bands, a central six-panel door beneath a moulded hood supported by corbels, and 12-pane sash windows. The eaves feature a cornice, and the gables are coped with moulded kneelers and stepped-and-corniced end stacks. To the left, there is a single-storey, one-bay extension with a 1910 three-light mullioned window and a stepped-and-corniced end stack.

The right return displays 12-pane sash windows and a six-pane attic sash. Set back to the right is a single-storey, two-bay rear wing with a renewed door and 12-pane Yorkshire sashes, along with an attached pent closet on the far right. The rear includes an arched stair window with a 12-pane sash featuring intersecting glazing bars in the head.

Inside, the house features fielded-panel doors and folding panelled shutters, along with good fireplaces that have contemporary ironwork. There is an arch leading to the stair hall, which contains an open-well stair with two stick balusters per tread, a ramped moulded handrail, moulded newels, and carved tread ends. The rear wing includes a set pot and an adjacent tiled bath.

Historically, the house was formerly known as The Mansion or Hatkin House. Local legend suggests that the elderly owner built the house to entice a young woman to marry him by offering her the prospect of inheriting it. The first Bird Research Station in Britain was established here in 1930, and the house contains much of the apparatus and equipment used in early ornithological research, with plans to open as a museum in 1987. The building is listed for its historical interest.