First floor dwelling with agricultural ground floor

First-floor dwelling with agricultural ground floor

This is a first-floor dwelling with an agricultural ground floor, incorporating an earlier single-storey building dating from the 17th or 18th century. The building is constructed of red sandstone rubble and river cobbles with ashlar dressings and a Lakeland slate roof. It is a rectangular, two-bay structure oriented east to west, parallel to the main road running westward through Dalston village. The walls are narrow, with a maximum thickness of 0.5 metres.

The main south elevation is rendered and features a pitched roof of stone slates laid in diminishing courses, with a left gable stack. The western half contains a ground-floor entrance with a small rectangular opening to the left and a large blocked opening at first-floor level. Access to the first floor is via a set of much-worn external stone steps leading to a door that opens into a store below. The eastern half has a ground-floor entrance with a small rectangular opening to the right and a single ventilation slit to the left. This section also has an entrance at a lower level accessed by the external stair. All openings are fitted with sandstone ashlar jambs and lintels, and doorways have wooden, narrow boarded doors with strap hinges.

The left return elevation is unrendered and displays prominent quoins. The rear faces of a pair of corbels supporting an inserted first-floor fireplace are visible here, along with a pair of small rectangular openings of later 20th-century date. The right return is rendered with a later 20th-century opening near the apex. The rear north elevation is partially obscured by a later barn projecting northward (not included in this listing).

The western half of the building projects slightly northward and has long and short quoins at both corners, a large first-floor opening, and an inserted later 20th-century ground-floor opening. The eastern half appears to be butted against the western half and is of later construction. It has long and short quoins at the left corner, a first-floor window, and a 20th-century ground-floor opening. This eastern section has been raised in height, with the eaves of an earlier single-storey building preserved as a stone band.

Internally, the building is divided into two rooms by a stone wall at both ground and first-floor levels. The ground-floor western room displays the exposed structure of the floor above, consisting of sawn rafters and narrow boards indicating later replacement. A pair of stone corbels supporting the first-floor fireplace are visible in the west gable immediately below the floor structure. The ground floor of the eastern room contains a number of large beams, possibly of relatively early date, running north to south and supporting slighter rafters and floor boards above. Many of the latter boards are particularly wide and are considered to be earlier in date.

At first-floor level, the western room has a simple red sandstone fireplace and flue set against the centre of the west gable, and all walls retain traces of whitewash. The eastern room has a lower floor level than that to the west. A scarcement along its north wall indicates it has been raised in height. Its western wall preserves the visible remains of an earlier gable end with a blocked rectangular opening at the centre, and there is a recently blocked opening that formerly gave access through to the western room. The pegged, double purlin roof structure, which appears to span the full length of the building, is formed of a triangular truss within each room supporting a lattice of slender and insubstantial laths, which may have originally supported a heather thatch roof.