East Rackenthwaite And Adjoining Barn

A farmhouse with an attached barn, now combined into a single dwelling, likely dating from the 16th or early 17th century, with extensions added at an early date and subsequent alterations, including recent renovations. The building is constructed of roughly-coursed sandstone rubble with quoins, and has a stone slate roof. The L-shaped layout comprises a main two-unit range facing south, a single-unit addition to the west, a large outshut to the rear of this addition, and the continuing former barn to the east.

The exterior features two storeys and six windows in total. A gabled porch sits below a quoined vertical joint, flanked by wide, oblong windows with chamfered oak mullions (recently restored). The left-hand window has a stone lintel and transom with five rectangular lights below and four square lights above. The right-hand window is shallower, with four lights, the first being a casement, and has an old oak lintel. To the right of this is a large blocked doorway. Above these windows, the first floor has two 12-pane sashes, the left-hand one flanked by the quoined jambs of a former large, oblong window. A large, wide and deep external chimney stack is located at the west gable, featuring five steps, and a large square ridge chimney with stone slate bands crowns the junction of the first and second bays, the stack now visible internally. The former barn now has a garage door and renewed windows on both floors. The rear of the building has a deep outshut under a catslide roof, with some renewed windows and inserted slit-windows.

Inside, a very thick stone lateral partition wall separates the first and second bays, with an extruded chimney stack on the west side. The west bay contains a lateral beam and renewed joists, alongside a recently rebuilt arched fireplace. The second bay has two chamfered axial beams, with a fielded panel partition beneath, dividing a parlour from a narrow pantry. The parlour shows scratch-moulded joists, a large arched fireplace with rubble voussoirs, and a 17th-century door to the first bay. The pantry has stone shelves (restored). A dog-legged stone staircase is situated off the rear corner of the first bay. The chamber above the parlour has an arched fireplace with a splayed reveal and rubble voussoirs, and an exposed tie-beam in the east wall, formed from a re-used purlin from a former timber-framed building, likely cruck. The chamber in the first bay contains a 17th-century door with large ornamental H-hinges, a high, scratch-moulded ceiling with joists, and an arched fireplace.

The property stands on the site of a former grange of Coverham Abbey. It forms a group with a barn approximately 10 metres to the south-east.