Brereton Cottage Brereton House

Brereton House and Brereton Cottage, originally a farmhouse, now two separate dwellings, stand in the village of Goathland. The main structure dates back to a rebuilding in 1740, on the site of an earlier house, with significant alterations made in 1851 and subsequent subdivision in the 20th century. The house was rebuilt by John and Elizabeth Cockerill, and later altered for John and Mary Scarth.

The house is predominantly built using dressed sandstone, with pantile roofing. It presents a two-storey, three-window facade to the right (Brereton House), and a one-and-a-half-storey, two-window front to the left (Brereton Cottage). A board door, centrally positioned on Brereton House, is set within a quoined and chamfered surround, topped with a heavy lintel inscribed ‘C I E 17 40’. To the left of this door is a six-light mullioned window, with one light blocked, and a large-pane fixed light at the far left. Other ground-floor windows to the right of the door, and those on the first floor, are three-light mullioned casements with large panes of glass. A cavetto-moulded eaves course runs around the building. The gables are coped and feature shaped kneelers. End corniced stacks are present, one being external.

Brereton Cottage retains an original cross-passage doorway, characterised by a quoined and chamfered surround and a lintel carved with a shallow triangular arch. A tiny four-pane sash window sits above the doorway, with a stone sill initialled and dated ‘I M S 1 8 5 1’. A board door is inserted to the far left, beneath a hammered lintel. A six-pane casement window is located to its right. A remaining ground floor window has a 16-pane sash with a tooled sill and hammered lintel. Gabled dormers are present, featuring two-light, 12-pane horizontal sliding sashes. A coped left gable and a blocked kneeler are also visible. A ridge stack is positioned towards the right end of the roof.

The rear of Brereton House is two storeys with three bays, accompanied by a one-storey outshut added to the end bays. These outshuts have later doorways and blocked windows with stone surrounds. A partly blocked five-light mullioned window is found on the ground floor of the centre bay. On the right return, two chamfered mullioned windows, one on the ground floor and one on the first floor, are situated to the right of an external stack.

Inside Brereton House, an original plank cross-passage door remains. The left-end ground floor room features an inglenook fireplace with a plank and muntin heck (smoke shelf), a stone bench, and chamfered square-section joists. Plank and muntin partition walls separate this room from the outshut and the central room. On the first floor, plank and muntin partitioning defines the passage and staircase walls. Numerous fielded-panelled doors are preserved throughout the house, including one in the left-end bedroom with butterfly hinges. The attic door also hangs on butterfly hinges. Crucially, two pairs of crossed-apex upper crucks resting on ties survive in Brereton House, and one pair is present in Brereton Cottage.