1-12, Lowther Village

A group of twelve houses, built between 1766 and 1773 by Robert Adam as estate housing for Sir James Lowther. They form part of a planned model village, although the village was ultimately not completed. The houses are constructed from mixed sandstone rubble with string courses and eaves cornices, and have hipped roofs covered in graduated greenslate, with banded, cement-rendered chimney stacks. They are arranged around an open courtyard, with an “palace” facade on three sides of a square. One end of the courtyard is closed by a two-storey, seven-bay house. The longer sides feature similar central houses, flanked by two-storey, three-bay houses and single-storey, two-bay wings, all forming a continuous row. Each central house has a recessed three-bay centre, with flanking gabled wings. The houses originally had plank doors set in plain openings with sandstone lintels; the wings have off-centre doors. Regularly-spaced 20th-century casement windows with glazing bars are set in plain reveals, with red sandstone lintels and sills. The houses were originally divided into sixteen dwellings and were altered in 1965 with assistance from a Historic Buildings Council grant.