The Hermitage

The Hermitage is a country house incorporating fabric from the 17th century, with a south wing rebuilt in the 1740s for Michael Coatsworth and the remainder constructed in the 1760s for Mr. Jurin. Later alterations and remodelling occurred around 1890. The house’s name derives from its reputed location on the site of a 7th-century hermitage associated with St. John of Beverley, and a medieval house, the ‘Armytage’, is recorded in 1496.

The south front is built of tooled-and-margined ashlar, while other parts are of rubble or roughly-squared stone with cut dressings, with the north-east wing facing the garden brick-faced. C19 additions are in ashlar, and the roofs are covered with Lakeland slate; the original house was in an H-plan, with a C19 entrance block infilling the west side. Minor C18 and C19 additions were made to the north.

The south front is two storeys and seven bays, with a projecting three-bay centrepiece featuring an open-pedimented porch with a part-glazed door within an eared architrave. The ground floor has plate-glass sashes, while the upper floor has twelve-pane sashes with cornices on consoles and pediments in the centre. A Diocletian window is set within a keyed architrave above. A slightly set-back C19 bay in matching style contains a full-height canted bay facing east. The roof is hipped with two tall, stepped ridge stacks, each with panelled shafts and a modillion cornice.

The west (entrance) front has a projecting C19 two-bay centre, with a two-bay loggia incorporating a balustrade which is continued around the forecourt. The east (garden) front features a recessed centre with steps leading to a glazed double door within a late C19 pedimented doorcase topped with a lunette. Windows have twelve-pane sashes within raised moulded surrounds.

The interior includes an early 19th-century dining room and library, a late 19th-century drawing room with an elaborately carved coffered ceiling, and a morning room with an early 18th-century fireplace featuring deep bolection moulding. The kitchen has a fireplace flanked by segmental arches with rusticated surrounds, along with an old charcoal-burning oven. The cellars beneath the north-east wing have segmental brick vaults, except for one stone-vaulted chamber with blocked openings concealed behind brick wine bins. A mid-18th-century open-well staircase has a swept, moulded and wreathed handrail, turned balusters with a faceted band below the knops, and a curtail. Similar balustrades are present on the closed-string servants’ staircase. A Rococo fireplace is found in one bedroom, and Chinese hand-painted wallpaper adorns another.