Lilac House

LILAC HOUSE

A Grade II* listed house, originally of the 17th century but significantly refurbished in the early 18th century. The building stands on the east side of the B5307 at Kirkbride, near Wigton, and forms part of a group that includes a later 16th-century barn, an 18th or 19th-century byre, stable and cowshed.

The house is constructed of clay in its lower walls with hand-made brick upper walls, now rendered. It has a graduated slate roof with brick axial gable and ridge stacks. The rectangular main building has evolved from its original cross-passage form to a rear outshut plan and displays three bays across two storeys. The left and centre bays each contain a single ground- and first-floor window opening fitted with four-pane horned replacement sash frames. The centre bay also features a small rectangular six-paned stair window. The right bay rises above the others under a separate roof and contains a large cart entrance with double boarded doors. The lintel of this entrance is inscribed with the words "Francis Hall/Anne Hall/1721". Above this cart entrance is a window opening with a four-pane replacement horned sash frame. The window and door openings are mostly dressed with plain square stone dressings. An attached gate with simple piers and a low stone wall enclose a small front garden. A brick-built outshut is attached to the rear.

The interior retains considerable character. The rear outshut houses a small kitchen to the right, flanked by a short passage leading to the main entrance. This entrance features a substantial oak double-thickness door with spearhead-shaped strap hinges, the outer face originally studded with approximately 300 iron studs, and retains an original circular latch and knocker. The inner face has a timber lock case. The lintel bears the initials and date "H/F A/R H/1721" painted upon it. From this entrance, a stair passage is formed by an inserted plank-and-muntin partition rising to first-floor level with square panelling above, separating it from the living accommodation to the right. The first living room is entered through a decorative door case and retains exposed oak beams, an infilled inglenook, window shutters and wide plank-and-muntin panelling on the rear wall. A short passage around the concealed inglenook provides access to the second room, which contains a Victorian timber fire surround and grate. The first floor is reached by a closed-string straight-flight oak stair with hand-turned balusters and a moulded handrail. The first-floor plan mirrors the ground floor, with a landing at the top of the stairs and two rooms to the right. The first room, entered via a panelled door, contains a large panelled bed recess and a stone chimneypiece. The second room is accessed through a panelled door and via a short passage around the enclosed inglenook, and features a plain stone fireplace. A third bedroom is located to the left of the stairs, over the cart entrance passage below, reached by several steps.

To the rear stand three associated outbuildings. The first, constructed of hand-made brick, is a former dairy. This is abutted by a small byre and stable built of stone, brick and clay. This latter building is attached to the west wall of a large barn, which has a stone plinth. An attached brick-built cowshed stands nearby. The barn's west wall is of clay that has been raised with several brick courses. Both gables are of brick and the rear wall, together with the roof covering, are of corrugated iron. A blocked doorway with stone dressings is visible in the south gable, and a small brick-built lean-to is attached to the north gable. A wooden lintel in the centre of the west wall marks the site of an original door, now partially occupied by a smaller wooden door and timber lintel. The stable interior retains a wooden stall, trough and manger. The barn retains its original roof structure comprising a pair of full crucks, the tops tenoned into the underside of the yokes, with a small loft at the north end.

The construction materials of the outbuildings vary: clay, brick, corrugated metal and stone with asbestos and slate roofs.

The dendrochronological dating of the barn timbers places them at approximately 1574, making this building substantially earlier than the main house. The timbers forming the cruck barn indicate it was originally intended as a full cruck structure. The main cottage itself originated as a 17th-century two-roomed, single-storey clay-walled building of probable cross-passage form with a full cruck thatched roof. By 1721, as evidenced by the date stone on the cart entrance lintel, the cottage had been substantially altered. The walls were raised in hand-made brick and the plan was remodelled. The cross-passage access was blocked, and one of the two original rooms was divided by a timber partition to create a narrow hall containing a stair to the upper storey. The main access shifted to a doorway through the rear wall into the stair passage. An outshut was added to the rear, and a cart entrance with a room above was built onto the south wall. This upper room is accessed from the new stair, suggesting that the conversion to a two-storey dwelling occurred by 1721. The stair itself appears to be of late 17th-century or early 18th-century form, and there is evidence it may have been re-used and re-modelled to fit the house. Other carpentry elements, including shutters, panelling and a first-floor chimneypiece, are characteristic of the early 18th century. Other outbuildings are thought to have been constructed by at least the early years of the 18th century.

The building may possibly be the "Kirkbride" building referred to in Terriers of 1663 and 1704. If so, it functioned as the Parsonage, and the Terrier of 1704 describes it as comprising "One Dwelling House, one barn and a Byre, two other outhouses, called the Parlour and the little Bean Barn". The Hall family are believed to have occupied the building until the mid-19th century. The 1861 census records the house as occupied by the Carr family, who ran both a cobbler business and a small farm until 2000.

This house is a rare example of the clay building tradition, known as "Dabbins", which was once widespread throughout northern England and southern Scotland but now survives substantially only on the Solway Plain in northern Cumbria, where approximately 300 examples remain. Although many such buildings date from the 17th century, dendrochronological evidence indicates that the earliest examples can be dated to the 15th century. Lilac House is designated at Grade II* principally for its survival as a rare example of formerly widespread clay building tradition, for the internal fixtures and fittings of above-average quality and completeness (notably the survival of a box bed), for its clearly-illustrated evolution from a long-house plan to an early 18th-century higher-status two-storey dwelling, and for its associated 16th-century partially clay-walled cruck barn and early 18th-century dairy, stable and byre.