Orchard Farmhouse And Attached Former Cowhouse

Orchard Farmhouse and attached former cowhouse are a building of around 1600, with 18th-century extensions and mid-19th-century alterations and additions. The farmhouse and cowhouse, now an activity centre, are located in Waterhouses civil parish.

The original 1600s section is of coursed rubble stone with ashlar quoins and dressings. The front of the left-hand bay of the original house has been rebuilt in red brick. 18th-century extensions are of red brick and coursed rubble, also with ashlar quoins and dressings. All sections are roofed with plain tiles, with brick ridge stacks and an integral end stack.

The original house, aligned east-west and facing south, has an early 18th-century western extension on the same alignment, and a later 18th-century extension wing aligned north-south added to the centre of the original south front. A mid-19th-century cowhouse was added to the west end of the farmhouse. The south front presents the house to the right and the cowhouse to the left. The 1600s section has a central gabled extension wing, and an early 18th-century extension to the left, with a visible joint between the two. The 1600s section is two storeys high, with three bays; the rebuilt bay has 16-pane sashes with wedge lintels, while the right-hand bay has a ground-floor three-light chamfered mullioned window with a rebated frame and a continuous hood mould that extends around the right-hand gable. A casement window is above this on the first floor. The left-hand return of the extension wing features a blocked door containing a casement, an inserted 20th-century door, and a flat-face mullioned window to the first floor. The early 18th-century extension has a Scotia moulded plinth, a moulded storey band, a cyma reversa moulded eaves band, and rusticated quoins of unequal length, with two storeys and three bays. It has two-light, flat-face mullioned windows with moulded surrounds, a first-floor casement, and a ground-floor double glazing bar sash with a wedge lintel. A 20th-century six-panelled door is positioned on the right, with a moulded architrave and cornice hood. The cowhouse is single-storey with three bays, containing casements to the left, right, and right of centre, having two of these within blocked doorways, and a door centrally placed. The north front shows the 1600s house to the left and the early 18th-century extension to the right, with a casement to the ground floor of the original house. The early 18th century section showcases a pair of one-above-the-other chamfered mullioned stair windows, the upper one being blocked. The east gable includes chamfered mullioned windows with rebated surrounds; the ground floor window has three lights and a continuous hood mould, while a blocked three-light window is above with an inserted casement and straight hood mould, and a blocked two-light attic window is also present. The interior contains a dog-leg staircase with turned balusters in the early 18th-century extension.