Old Briardene Cottage

A farmhouse, now a house, likely dating from the late 17th century, with alterations and a recent renovation. The building is timber-framed and was later faced with stone or brick, now all rendered, and has a roof covered in composition pantiles. It has a two-unit plan with continuous outshuts. The two-storey, two-bay front, which faces south, has a doorway near the left end. This doorway has a chamfered Tudor-arched lintel with an inscription, now partly worn, reading “George (?) Oulton / born/ I . -. 17 (?) 9.-.M”. A first-floor band steps over the lintel. To the right of the doorway at ground-floor level is a two-light window with a central mullion (likely originally four lights), a narrow fire window, and another mullioned window, probably formerly three lights but now lacking its second mullion. On the first floor are two two-light horizontal sliding sashes. A chimney rises from the ridge of the roof, and on the right-hand gable is a large extruded chimney. The right-hand gable wall is stepped and continues to the rear of the stack. At ground-floor level it has a large inserted window, a small chamfered window to its right, and two similar windows on the first floor, flanking the chimney. The rear, now the front, has a doorway, a small window, and a modern, pentice-roofed porch.

The interior retains some original timber framing in the west gable wall, including wall posts, a cambered tie beam with a down brace to post, and some studs. There's also timber framing in a partition to the outshut, including posts, an arcade plate, and bracing. A central chimney stack contains a wide, depressed-arched brick fireplace in the first unit's house part. In the second unit’s gable wall, built of sandstone rubble, is a Tudor-arched parlour fireplace. To the left of the fireplace is a square recess, possibly a former salt cupboard, and to the right a blocked three-light window with diamond-section wooden mullions.