Birch House Farmhouse And Attached Stable

Birch House Farmhouse and its attached stable are located in Hartoft, North Yorkshire, and date back to 1671, as indicated by a date on a kneeler, originally built for Tom Page. The building was rebuilt in 1804, incorporating parts of the earlier structure for John Harland, with later alterations in the 19th century. The front and left side are made of herringbone-tooled sandstone, set on earlier foundations, while the right side and rear are constructed from coursed rubble stone. The roof is covered with pantiles.

The farmhouse features a 3-cell, hearth-passage plan with an outshut at the high end. It is two stories high, with a two-window arrangement on the high end and a lower two-window low end to the left. The low end has a board door and a large-pane, two-light horizontal-sliding sash window to the left, with a corresponding two-light, 12-pane horizontal-sliding sash window above. The openings have roughly herringbone-tooled lintels. Further to the left is a stable door with a plank shuttered pitching window nearby. The high end has 6-pane sash windows in plain raised surrounds with vertically-tooled sills. The building features coped gables and shaped kneelers, with end stacks at the high end and a central stack at the low end.

On the left return, a kneeler incorporates an earlier datestone that records the 19th-century rebuilding, with the inscription: P I H IR1671TP 1804. The rear includes a single-storey outshut with a catslide roof at the high end and a plank door leading to the cross passage in the low end. Inside, the room to the left of the door contains an early 19th-century stone fireplace with a corbelled mantel shelf, complete with a crane and reckon. At the time of the resurvey, the house was for sale, and the sales particulars noted that the interior remains unmodernised.