Hill Top Farmhouse And Cottage

Hill Top Farmhouse and Cottage is a 17th-century farmhouse with an 18th-century extension. The original farmhouse dates to 1617 and has two bays, with a further two bays added in the 18th century. It is constructed of “slobbered” rubble stone with stone dressings and a stone slate roof, while the extension is of dressed stone. The farmhouse is two storeys high and has six bays. A two-storey projecting porch, forming the fourth bay of the house, provides a lobby entrance. The porch has a moulded surround to the entrance, featuring a basket-arched head and moulded spandrels. A datestone above the entrance is inscribed “William Thomas Preston 1617.” A dripstone sits above the inscription. An upper-floor window on the front of the house is double-chamfered with two lights, a square stool and a head to a cavetto mullion, and has a hoodmould. A small opening in the gable, in the centre of a pigeon loft, contains a triangular arrangement of 22 holes, topped with a pyramidal finial. The right-hand return of the porch features an upper floor window with a cavetto surround and two rows of pigeon holes above, the lower row now blocked. There are no openings in the left-hand return of the porch. To the right of the porch is a ground floor double-chamfered window, formerly with four lights, but the right-hand light’s mullion has been cut out to accommodate a door. Two upper-floor windows are also double-chamfered with three lights, square stools, and heads to cavetto mullions, and all windows have hoodmoulds. To the left of the porch is a ground floor four-light double-chamfered window, and a similar three-light window above with square stools and heads, both with hoodmoulds. The 18th-century extension is double-fronted with a central entrance surrounded by plain stonework to the upper half. The windows in the extension are double-chamfered with two lights and flat-faced mullions. A pigeon loft sits above. Gable-end ridge stacks are present, along with a ridge stack behind the porch and at the junction with the 18th-century extension. The rear of the house has a projecting bay opposite the porch. Inside, the farmhouse has an inglenook with a separate bread oven and a massive bressummer of millstone grit.