Reading Room the Cottage is a Grade II listed building in the Northumberland local planning authority area, England. Reading room. 1 related planning application.

Reading Room the Cottage

WRENN ID
standing-spandrel-meadow
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Northumberland
Constituency
North Northumberland MP: David Smith (Lab)
Country
England
Type
Reading room
Address
Reading Room the Cottage, Newton Village, Newton-On-The-Moor and Swarland, NE65 9JY
OS grid reference
NU 170 053
Coordinates
55.34175, -1.73246
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: sale history · related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Reading Room and The Cottage is an early 18th century house that was converted into a reading room in 1887. It is built of squared stone and has a pantile roof, except for the rear outshut which is covered with Welsh slates. The building is a single storey with five slightly irregular bays, as the upper floor was removed in 1887. The centre features a flush-panelled door beneath a gabled hood supported by moulded brackets. There are 12-pane sash windows, with a former first-floor band visible above. The gables are coped and rest on moulded kneelers, and there are corniced end stacks that are likely re-set.

Inside, the reading room in the west part retains a fine early 18th century panelled room, complete with a dado rail, cornice, and panelled and fluted pilasters flanking the fireplace, which has a corniced overmantel. There is a two-panel door set in a bolection-moulded surround with a pulvinated frieze. To the right of the fireplace is a shell-headed cupboard with shaped shelves. A panelled round arch, featuring imposts and a fluted key block, connects the entrance passage to the outshut, which was the former stair position. The eastern part of the building, located to the right of the entrance passage, is currently used as bedrooms for The Cottage, the adjacent single-storeyed dwelling that is otherwise not of special interest.

Local climate

Reading Room the Cottage receives an average of 840 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 55% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 63% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 15 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 85% of listed buildings. Of these, 10 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • No EPC on record for this property
  • Sale history — 1 transaction since 2024
  • Related listed building consents — 1 application
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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