The Lane Cottage With Attached Barn And Stable

The Lane Cottage with Attached Barn and Stable

A farmhouse orné with adjoining threshing barn (now garage) and loose-box with hay loft above, located at Church Gate in Ravenstonedale. The building was initiated in 1767, with the initials J.T. marked on the lintel to the former winnowing door. Subsequent phases of development are documented: an 1870 date with initials T.H. (Thomas Hewetson) appears on the jamb of the loft door to the south return of the loose-box; an 1887 date with the same initials marks the porch; and an 1892 date, accompanied by the inscription "T. HEWETSON DEL. W. HODGSON SCULP", appears in the pediment of the northern extension, which also saw a first-floor addition constructed over part of the rear outshut. Later alterations to the rear have been made.

The structure is built of coursed, squared rubble with quoins and is roofed in graduated slate, hipped to the north end, with outshuts to front and rear. Stone chimneys rise from the walls. The building is two storeys, with the house comprising five bays overall, and the northern extension follows an apsidal plan.

The east elevation features a chamfered plinth. A full-height porch at the centre of the original house contains a panelled door set in a shouldered Egyptian surround with blind arcading to the jambs and a glazed tympanum. To the left is an 18th-century window of four lancets in a surround formed by interlaced arcading with colonettes fronting the mullions. To the right is an 18th-century window with two small semicircular-headed lights and a square light to the central spandrel. The northern extension displays three lights in Egyptian surrounds. The first floor of the porch has a glazed quatrefoil window, with a ramped cornice and stepped parapet above. The first-floor left window has had its central colonette removed, likely during late 19th-century reglassing, and now contains three inwardly-canted lights; to the right is an 18th-century single-light window. The first floor of the extension projects forward, carried on an arched corbel table with an ornate datestone. A tripartite casement with colonettes fronting the mullions is set here. Hoodmoulds with scrolled labels crown the 18th-century windows on the ground floor left and first floor. A moulded cast-iron gutter is carried on stone brackets, and an ornate stone kneeler with finial marks the original north end of the house. The extension's curved north return has a three-light mullioned and transomed window to the ground floor and a two-light window above. The cornice between floors features two overlapping roundels with heraldic devices. A blocked semicircular-headed Egyptian opening serves the north return of the outshut. The west elevation contains 20th-century doors and windows.

The outbuildings on the left, lying under the same roof as the main house, are accessed from the east elevation by a plank winnowing door in a full-height pointed surround with a wooden dovecote in the tympanum. A plank door and small window serve the loose-box to the left. The west elevation of the outbuildings contains a 20th-century up-and-over garage door set in an original 18th-century opening, with a stone pier supporting the south end of the lintel. To the right is a room (possibly a former earth closet) with a plank door and small 18th-century semicircular-headed window. A plank byre door and casement are set back further to the right. Stone coping and kneelers finish the south end of the barn.

The interior features late 19th-century remodelling with richly moulded and carved woodwork that survives virtually intact. An 1891 date with the initials T.H. is inscribed on the lintel to the first-floor front room to the south. The panelled hall ceiling displays geometric ribbing with pendants at the intersections. Other ceilings are fitted with moulded beams featuring foliate bosses at the intersections. Doors throughout the interior are ornamented with decorative panelling.