Scrithwaite Farmhouse, laundry and bank barns

Scrithwaite Farmhouse, Laundry and Bank Barns

A 17th-century farmhouse extended in the 18th century and mid-to-late 19th century, a mid-to-late 19th-century laundry, and two bank barns of late 18th or early 19th-century date, all featuring 20th and 21st-century alterations. All buildings are constructed of local stone rubble with graduated Westmorland slate roofs. The farmhouse range is rendered.

The linear farmhouse and agricultural range is oriented north-east to south-west and incorporates the remains of an earlier dwelling. The bank barn complex to the east is L-shaped, with a west range aligned north-west to south-east and a north range aligned north-east to south-west.

The farmhouse is a two-storey range beneath pitched roofs with a central chimney stack. Sash windows are generally unhorned. The main south-east elevation has two domestic entrances with timber and glazed doors and a single agricultural entrance at the north-east end. There are four ground-floor windows and five on the first floor, all within deep reveals and mostly fitted with three-over-three unhorned sash windows; the firehouse window has a six-over-six sash. Fallen render to a first-floor window has revealed a wany timber lintel that may be of mullioned form. The left return has a single first-floor rear window. The right return and rear elevations are built into the hillside. The rear elevation features a rectangular stair tower with a stair window.

The ground floor throughout retains a historic character of crude, uneven plastered walls and original stone slab floors, with multiple waney ceiling beams, some chamfered. The southern pair of rooms comprises the earlier cruck-framed dwelling, comprising a firehouse and parlour. The parlour is subdivided to create a small pantry. The firehouse is entered through an original crude gable entrance around the end of an inglenook. A substantial chamfered beam spans the full width of the room, forming the tie-beam of an upper cruck truss and serving as a fire beam that would have supported an original fire hood. The lower part of a curving cruck blade rises from one end of this beam. The beam has a short curving cut-away, thought to be the former site of a heck post. The inglenook is lit by a fire window, now blocked externally, and contains a beef loft fitted with several meat hooks and a spice cupboard with a door of three fielded panels. Fixed seating lines the inglenook. A later brick-built fireplace houses a 19th-century cast-iron range. Metal supports for timber hangers are attached to some ceiling beams. The firehouse is separated from the parlour by a cross passage with short, chamfered ceiling beams, which terminates at a rear staircase. The parlour has a 19th-century chimney piece fitted with a mid-19th-century grate. An original narrow pantry next to the parlour retains slate sconces. It has a substantial beam similar to that in the firehouse, thought to be the tie-beam of a second cruck pair; the beam continues into the parlour encased in timber. The north part of the house is an 18th-century addition comprising a kitchen and large pantry. The pantry retains a full complement of stone sconces. The kitchen retains a full-height stone fireplace with a 20th-century range.

A dog-leg staircase with a 20th-century balustrade rises to the first floor within a semi-circular rear stair turret. The first floor contains a number of small, low-ceilinged rooms off a linear rear passage spanning the length of the building. Within the original dwelling parts, pairs of cruck blades are visible emerging from each external wall. The timbers are clearly jointed and pegged to a collar beam, with visible purlins and a ridge piece. On the other side of an inserted partition, the cruck blade and collar remain but are boxed in. Associated with the crucks is a length of plaster and plank partition formed of a framework of roughly-shaped vertical posts with laths placed horizontally between the verticals and plastered over. A small four-light timber mullioned window with a flat-faced central mullion survives on the south-east elevation. Although blocked externally, it is a good example of original 17th-century window forms, and others are likely to survive behind later decoration. The raised roof of the beef loft is visible, and above it are the remains of a stone fire hood supported on a pair of projecting stone supports.

The laundry is a small rectangular structure with a curved side, pitched roof, and apex chimney stack. It has a gable entrance and a single window to one long side. The roof structure has been replaced. A red-brick set pot stands in one corner.

The west barn range is a former threshing barn. Its south-west elevation has a full-height cart entrance beneath a pentice roof, with a single ventilation slit above; to the left is a single entrance. A 20th-century addition obscures the rest of the elevation. The right return has a cat slide roof with window and door openings. The left return has an apex window. The rear elevation has an opposing full-height double cart entrance, confirming the threshing function. The north range comprises a single-storey element that is either a rebuilding of an earlier structure or a more recent infill. A double-height barn features prominent quoins and rows of through stones. Its south-east elevation has an original ground-floor entrance with a slab lintel, a pair of ventilation slits, and a dovecote above with a stone perching ledge. An inserted vehicular entrance appears to have destabilised the historic fabric above, with evidence of rebuilding. The north-west elevation of this range is built into the hillside, with several openings to plain lofts, all of similar construction.

The interior of the barn complex's west range has whitewashed walls and a replacement double-purlin roof structure. Its north-west end has a series of stepped, stone and timber-built platforms lined with stone slabs. A central threshing floor of timber and stone slabs is retained. The south-east end is raised to allow for the roof of the undercroft, and a trap door allows animal feed to be lowered. The undercroft is a plain space, now converted to a workshop. The north range has replacement roof structures. The single-storey element has plain interiors and a mid-20th-century concrete byre. The undercroft of the two-storey barn retains wany timber roof supports and an original timber and slate byre formed of double stalls or boskins, with a cobbled feed and fodder gang.