Thimble Cottage, Middle Stanley Farm

This is a cottage, likely built around 1904 for Reginald Hart Prance, probably designed by Ernest Newton. It is constructed of coursed squared and dressed limestone with a thin stone slate roof and limestone stacks. The cottage has a square plan with raking, finely dressed corner buttresses, and a lean-to extension on the west side that is not of particular interest. It is a single-storey building with an attic. A six-light stone-mullioned canted bay window occupies the north-east corner, and a six-light canted dormer rises from the roof with a conical roof. A three-light stone-mullioned casement is on the north front, and a similar casement is on the south front, alongside a tall, three-light wooden mullioned casement with a transom and hipped roof above. An open-sided porch with a square column, tapering towards the top, sits on the south-east corner and features two round-headed arches with moulded keystones. The pyramidal roof rises to a central stack shaped as a loosely formed quatrefoil. An eaves cornice with a half ovolo-moulding is also present. A single-storey wash house is now linked to the main house via a 20th-century extension, including a single-light casement on the north side and a 20th-century top-opening casement on the west side, both under a pyramidal roof. The construction is of a very high standard, particularly the roof. The interior has not been inspected. The cottage was formerly known as South Lodge.