Upper Cockcroft

Upper Cockcroft is a house dated 1642, originally attached to Upper Cockcroft farmhouse. It is constructed of ashlar with a stone slate roof. The building has two storeys and a three-room through-passage plan with a double-pile arrangement to the rear of the parlour and housebody. The south front is characterised by twin gables to the left of a projecting two-storey gabled porch. The windows are all double-chamfered mullioned, with a cyma moulded string course above the ground floor windows, which have transomes. Hoodmoulds with decorated label stops are above the first-floor windows. A twelve-light window sits above a five-light window on the first floor. A decorated stone, inscribed “(?) BBES 1642”, is positioned in the valley between the gables, which are coped with finials. A twelve-light window, featuring a cross-fire-window, is also present. The first floor has a five-light window and an arched light to the left of the porch, which has rainwater spouts on either side. The basket arched doorway features a moulded surround, while the inner door has a simple chamfer. The first-floor porch chamber has a five-light ovolo moulded window with a columbarium to the apex, topped with a finial. The service end of the building has a seven-light window above a four-light window to the first floor, to the right of the arched light. The rear elevation displays two gables and further mullioned windows with finials to the apex.

The interior of the former service end is open to the through passage, which features wide stop-chamfered floor joists. A wide segmental arched fireplace, with joggled voussoirs and a chamfered surround, is also present. The housebody contains a basket-arched fireplace with a cyma moulded surround carried on crude columns, a unique feature that replaced a firehood - evidenced by the scarf-jointed spine-beam. The former parlour has a basket arched fireplace with a joggled keystone. On the first floor, one fireplace has a simple basket arch with a chamfered surround, featuring fine plaster above the mantel with heraldic devices set within two arcades, initialled and dated "IB 1644." A C18 fireplace with an architrave and pulvinated moulded mantel-piece is located in the housebody chamber. The king-post roof truss, with "V" struts and a half lap joint on the principal rafter, suggests the possible reuse of timber from an earlier cruck-framed building.