Hill Top

Hill Top is a house, now a museum, with an attached farmhouse. It dates from the 17th century or early 18th century, with alterations made in the mid to late 18th century and a 1906 addition for Beatrix Potter. The building is constructed of roughcast stone and topped with a slate roof. It has two storeys and four bays, with the first bay projecting under a gable that features a pentice over the ground floor. A datestone reads "1906/HBP". The windows are sashed with glazing bars; the windows in the first bay and the first floor of the second bay have horns. The entrance to the first bay is plain, while the entrance to the third bay is marked by a gabled slate slab porch and a six-fielded-panel door. The house has a cross-axial stack and a gable-end stack, with a small casement window on the right return. The rear of the house includes a projecting stair wing with a gabled wing to the right. The stair window features a wooden cross-casement with leaded glazing secured by iron bars, and there is a gable-end stack on the stair wing.

Inside, the hall has panelling and cupboard doors with fielded panels. The fireplace features a 19th-century range. The parlour is adorned with 18th-century panelling, fluted flat pilasters, a bed cupboard, and a pantry, along with an early 19th-century white and coloured marble fireplace. The staircase includes column balusters, fluted square newels, and a ramped handrail. On the first floor, there is a wide-board door and a fireplace inscribed "WHB/1934," along with a 17th-century stone fireplace and a 17th-century back stair. Beatrix Potter purchased Hill Top in 1906, using it as an occasional retreat and a place for her writing. She illustrated the house in several of her books, including 'The Tale of Tom Kitten' (1907), 'The Tale of Samuel Whiskers' (1908), and 'The Tale of Jemima Puddleduck' (1908). She later bequeathed the farm to The National Trust.