High Branthwaite Farmhouse

Farmhouse. It was likely built in the early 18th century and altered in the 19th century. The external walls are constructed of roughly shaped rubble stone with prominent quoins, and the roof is covered in graduated stone slates, with some blue slates visible in the lower courses. The building has a rectangular double-depth, four-room plan.

On the exterior, the farmhouse now has three windows, but it probably originally had five. A gabled porch is slightly offset to the left and the windows are strongly emphasized. The porch has a roof with a slightly curved top edge, a segmental-headed opening, a blocked small window on its left side, and stone benches. The ground floor has an eight-pane hornless sash window to the left and a wider ten-pane sash window to the right, both with vertical glazing bars. The first floor has four-pane sash windows above these. To the right of the first window on the left is a square window where a mullion formerly stood. Above the porch, the outline of another former two-light mullioned window is still visible. Gable chimneys have cornices made of stone slates. On the left gable wall are through-stones on three levels and stone slate bands on two levels, along with two small one-light windows at ground floor and one similar attic window. The right-hand gable has a similar attic window.

At the rear, there is a lean-to porch offset to the right, and a former mullioned window is visible to the right of this, featuring a double-chamfered surround and now lowered sill with four-pane glazing. Above the porch is a two-light double-chamfered mullioned window. Two vertically-aligned oblong stair-windows are in the center of the rear, the upper one with eight fixed panes. There are oblong windows on each floor to the left, the lower one with three lights, wooden mullions and small panes, and the upper one with six panes and one opening window. Most of these rear windows have wooden lintels protected by projecting dripstones.

The interior is divided into a housepart on the left and a parlour on the right, with a kitchen, staircase, and dairy to the rear. A lateral beam with a cyma-stopped chamfer is visible (revealed beside the staircase but otherwise concealed). A firehood bressumer (a large beam above a fireplace) runs parallel with the gable wall in the kitchen. The dairy has stone shelves. The dog-legged staircase has a closed string, turned balusters, square newels, and muntin-and-plank panelled side walls. Original doors are present throughout. The attic space contains two pegged collar trusses, marked with carpenter's marks "I" and "II", and two pairs of trenched purlins. This is an interesting example of a full double-depth plan combined with earlier features.