Weston Cotton

Weston Cotton House is a pre-18th century farmhouse with an attached 18th and early 19th century range and later 19th and 20th century alterations.

The main structure is timber-framed with infill panels of both early and later materials including brick. A rubble stone chimney with reinforcement is present, with the later wings constructed of red brick. The range to the east features timber ceiling beams above a local rubble stone cellar reinforced in brick. Roofs are Welsh slate and fenestration is timber throughout. The boundary wall is constructed of stone.

The plan comprises a main single-depth range of two framed bays set east-west, with additional ranges to the north, east and south. The principal entrance is to the north in a mid-19th century range containing the hallway and stair, forming an L-plan with an earlier 19th or 18th century single-depth gabled range oriented north-south. Two further ranges are attached to the south with a lobby, access into the earlier range, a rear stair and rear scullery area. A large stone chimney with inglenook sits at the centre of the farmhouse, with main rooms arranged around it. A conservatory is attached to the rear. The three ranges have differing floor heights at first floor and attic level.

The early range is two-storey plus attic with a jettied north front featuring an exposed moulded bressumer, wall plate and studwork. The steeply-pitched gabled end to the west has exposed purlin ends and a window to each floor, positioned to the right of the gable apex. Elevations are a mixture of brick and render with applied 19th century plaster quoins. A later two-storey wing to the right is part slate-hung with windows into the eaves and a door under a fishscale-roofed porch. The attached wings to the north and east are two-storey with rendered elevations, distinctive regular openings with wide plaster architraves and quoins. Roofs and projecting porch to the north are slate-covered with three principal red brick stacks. The south elevation is less ordered, with three principal ranges running south at different heights and a conservatory. Window frames are 19th century timber sashes with slender pointed glazing bars.

The west end has the appearance of a working farm with exposed substantial timbers with iron fixings, stonework and a large inglenook fireplace. A 19th century bread oven is located in the rear range. The east end and hallway are more formally domestic with centrally-placed fireplaces, lath and plaster walls and cleanly chamfered ceiling beams. Timber shutters remain in the ground floor principal rooms. 19th century slate chimneypieces are present. The earlier range contains a stone fireplace with ovolo moulding. Wide timber floorboards survive at first floor level. The attic spaces are part boarded, panelled and subdivided, featuring substantial chamfered and stopped purlins and two king post trusses probably of 18th century date. The cellar is stone-built with brick reinforcement and may form part of the foundations of an earlier structure on the site.

Weston Cotton House appears to have operated as the principal part of a farmstead since at least the 17th century. The core dates from before 1700, extended and remodelled in the 18th and mid-19th centuries. The smaller earlier building and large attached wing are shown on a tithe map of 1839, along with an associated barn probably of 18th century date. The Ordnance Survey Map of 1875 shows the range to the south and a porch on the north elevation had been added by this time, probably during a remodelling which introduced the current internal layout and fittings. The map also indicates a planned landscape including a footpath leading northwards was laid out by this time. The farmhouse is currently unoccupied.