Carr Bank

Carr Bank

A former pair of cottages dating from the late 18th century, now combined as one dwelling, with a third cottage of early 19th-century date positioned to the rear and a mid-19th-century extension.

The building is constructed of buff local sandstone with stone flag roofs and timber windows.

The original pair of cottages (number 7) are arranged in an east-west alignment with a simple two-room direct-entry plan. The third cottage (number 9) stands to the north and is a single room deep.

The front cottages, now number 7, rise to three storeys and face south. Each occupies one bay, built in watershot rubble masonry laid in regular diminishing courses with eaves corbels. The windows are stacked and stepped three-light openings, with the eastern doorway set inboard of the windows. An inserted two-light window sits above. The east wall is gabled with two-light flush-mullioned windows positioned to the right of the upper floors. The ground floor is largely concealed by a single-storey kitchen extension added in 2019 which is not of special interest and excluded from the listing. The rebuilt west wall contains two-light flush-mullioned windows to the ground floor on the right and upper floors on the left, with a doorway altered from a former window position at the left.

Number 9 is a lean-to structure of two storeys in similar stonework, now unsympathetically cement strap-pointed as of 2025, with a tall chimneystack at the left. A straight vertical joint separates it from number 7. Immediately against number 7 under the apex of the eastern eaves is a blocked two-light flush-mullioned window.

The front north façade is largely blind to the right of a vertical joint, which is marked by alternating square quoins at first-floor level only. The eastern half has stacked central stepped three-light flush-mullioned windows and a doorway at the right with stone surround and lintel, the lintel extending beyond the vertical joint. The western half contains a short eaves chimneystack, replacing an earlier brick stack. The western façade features a stepped three-light flush-mullioned window at ground-floor level with two two-light flush-mullioned windows above.

Interior features of number 7 retain former stone and brick party walls on the ground and first floors, now plastered, with a spine beam above them on the first floor. The upper floor forms a single open space to the roof, which contains a hewn spine truss with a kingpost projecting above the principal rafters and entrenched purlins. The truss bears carpenter's marks and at least one purlin and the first-floor spine beam display Baltic shipping marks. The upper floor has painted stone walls with the route of the flue in the east wall remaining legible. The lower floors have modern partition walls and a stair on the east side of the spine wall. Some ceiling joists and timber lintels remain visible, with otherwise modern finishes throughout.

Number 9 contains an inserted modern vestibule with reused stained glass. The east half has exposed beams, a stone fireplace, a stone-shelved niche in the north-east corner, and a window seat. At the south end of the cross wall is a timber cupboard with a three-plank door, cut down from a four-plank original, accessing a westward cupboard below the stairs. This has three descending steps, a niche in the party wall with number 7, and stone shelves. The west half features exposed ceiling joists, a stone fireplace with cooking range, and a ledged three-plank door accessing the stairs rising eastwards against the party wall. The first floor shows a partly-exposed truss at the head of stairs that wind to the left, with ledged plank doors in the western and eastern rooms. The attic retains the blocked former window in the east wall under the eaves and a blockwork inner skin on the west wall, with the truss partially planked on its east face and a later brick cross wall to its east.

To the rear of number 9 are paths laid in stone flags and some cobbles with stone steps, and stone walls enclosing former garden plots constructed in a mix of vertical flags, dry-stone and mortared walling. The dry-stone walls incorporate a drain for a local spring and a possible bee-bole in the south-west corner.