Spittal Farmhouse

Spittal Farmhouse is an early 18th-century farmhouse, with a datestone of 1707 inscribed "THOMAS SIMPSON & MARGARET SIMPSON" (now located on a barn, but likely originally from the house). The house is constructed of coursed red sandstone with a string course and flush quoins on a chamfered plinth. It has a graduated greenslate roof and sandstone chimney stacks. Originally six bays, the house has a contemporary two-bay right-angled extension to the rear forming an L-shape. To the left is a lower, two-storey, two-bay former house with a further single-bay extension under the same roof. A 20th-century panelled door is set in a partly blocked, chamfered surround; a similar blocked entrance is on the extreme left. Blocked ground floor windows were originally cross-mullioned, as are the windows on the upper floor. Narrow upper-floor fire windows flank the building, the one to the right being blocked. The rear extension features small blocked windows and cross-mullioned windows. Sash windows in chamfered surrounds now replace the original cross-mullioned windows. A porch in the angle of the L-shape has a four-panel door in a painted architrave under a pediment. The former 17th-century house has pebble-dashed walls under a graduated greenslate roof with pebble-dashed chimney stacks. It contains a panelled door in a painted chamfered surround, and a further plank door within an extension to the left, along with a 20th-century casement window on the ground floor and smaller windows above. The interior of the main house contains a pair of upper crucks. The main ground floor room has a large inglenook fireplace with a heck partition and arched wooden firebeam, and a beamed ceiling. The ground floor room of the extension also features a beamed ceiling. A wine cellar under the stairs remains, with original stone shelves. The site was previously occupied by the medieval Hospital of St Leonards; further details can be found in the Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society.