6, Riverside

This is an early 17th-century house, with a restoration undertaken in the 1960s by Barry Bucknell. It is located on the north side of Riverside in Felton. The house is constructed of roughly-coursed heavy rubble, rendered and colourwashed at the front, and has a 20th-century concrete tile roof. It follows a long-house plan with two storeys and three irregular bays.

The front elevation features a renewed half-glazed door between the left bays, along with a 20th-century plate glass window to the left (former shop front) and a 16-pane sash window to the right. Above are a 24-pane and a 12-pane Yorkshire sash windows. A renewed cross-passage door is located in the right bay, concealed by rendering that reveals a flat-pointed head and chamfered surround. To the right of this is a 16-pane sash window and a 24-pane Yorkshire sash above. The upper windows are set within rendered-over chamfered surrounds. A raised reverse-stepped coping is present on the left end gable, alongside a 20th-century left-end stack. The left return reveals two small, chamfered attic windows, the one to the right being blocked. The rear elevation has a renewed cross-passage door in a chamfered surround, under a flat-pointed arch. A small chamfered stair window is situated to the right, with a shorter 9-pane sash above. An upper doorway holds a 20th-century glazed door to the left.

Inside, the stone-walled cross passage contains a doorway with a timber lintel leading to an unheated room at the east end, and a chamfered doorway with a flattened four-centred arch leading to the main ground floor room. This main room has an east end fireplace with a chamfered bressumer on a chamfered stone heck-post, and a later 17th-century west end fireplace with a moulded surround within a chamfer, which steps out to enclose rectangular panels at the head of each jamb and at the centre of the lintel. A curved recess in the north wall, adjacent to the entry, indicates the original location of the newel stair, accompanied by a small stair window with sockets for original iron bars. Original ceiling beams are present throughout: transverse beams run across the main part of the house, while axial beams are found above the passage and in the east end. Evidence of later studded partitions for a central passage is visible in the main part. A late 17th-century fireplace with a flat-pointed head within a chamfered surround is located in the east end bedroom.

Historically, the long-house plan is relatively unusual for the area. In the 18th or 19th century, the unheated east end room was used as a distillery for the adjacent public house. The house was the subject of a “do-it-yourself” restoration in the 1960s, following its acquisition through a raffle, and was featured in a BBC television series. A 1960s flat-roofed brick rear wing is not considered to be of particular interest.