Hermitage Farmhouse

Hermitage Farmhouse is an early 17th-century farmhouse, with later additions and alterations. It is timber framed with wattle and daub and red brick infill, cladding, and additions, and has a plain tile roof. The farmhouse is laid out in an L-shape, with a gabled cross-wing slightly projecting to the rear on the right, and an outshut running almost the full length of the hall range. The hall range appears to have been extended to the left in the 18th century.

The farmhouse is one storey and an attic. The exposed timber framing to the cross-wing features rectangular panels, three from cill to tie beam, with long straight tension braces, a V-strut to the front collar, and a king-strut to the rear collar. The right wall of the cross-wing was rebuilt in the early 20th century using red brick, and the rear gable is clad in the same brick below the tie beam. The hall range was extended in the 18th century using brick in a Flemish stretcher bond, and clad or rebuilt in the early 19th century using a mixed bond. The hall range has late 19th-century casement windows, one of three lights to each side of a contemporary half-glazed door positioned to the left of the centre; the left window has a concrete lintel, and the right a segmental head. Gabled eaves dormers sit above, with the left one likely dating to the 18th century and the right to the early 20th century. A blocked doorway with a concrete lintel and another with a segmental head are situated to the right of the window and casement respectively. The gable of the cross-wing has one 3-light 19th-century casement window on each floor. An axial red brick ridge stack to the right of the hall range has projections to each face, the front featuring a diamond-shaped pattern. A small integral end stack is located to the left. A regularly coursed and dressed sandstone rubble outshut is at the rear, likely dating to the 19th century, with a later 19th-century red brick lean-to against the left gable end. The right wall of the cross-wing formerly had a timber-framed outshut abutting it.

Inside, the timber frame with square panels is exposed in the cross wall of the cross-wing, and visible beneath the plaster to the former gable end of the hall range. A room to the right of this has a deep-chamfered cross beam with straight-cut stops, and flat joists, with a Victorian wooden fireplace set into an infilled inglenook. The left ground-floor room has a chamfered spine beam and an inglenook fireplace with a wooden lintel, and an oak winder staircase is located behind the front left-hand corner door. Another oak winder staircase is positioned in the rear right-hand corner of the hall range. Plank and muntin doors with strap hinges are found throughout, alongside several 18th-century inset wall cupboards, including a larder in the wall to the left of the right room of the hall range. The first floor was not accessible for inspection at the time of resurvey in March 1986, but is said to have exposed roof trusses.