Skelcies Farmhouse With Adjoining Cottage, Barn, Wagon Shed And Area Walls, Gate Piers, And Railings

Skelcies Farmhouse, along with an adjoining cottage, barn, wagon shed, area walls, gate piers, and railings, is a notable building located in Winton, north of Kirkby Stephen. The farmhouse and cottage are constructed in two phases. The cottage features a door lintel that is initialled and dated C.H. E.H., M.H. D.H. 1674, while the farmhouse likely dates from 1813, as indicated by a date on the rainwater head. Both structures are made of sandstone blocks, with the farmhouse displaying rusticated quoins on a chamfered plinth and topped with a hipped, graduated slate roof.

The cottage is set back on the left and has incised stucco beneath a graduated stone-flagged roof, complete with stone coping and kneelers. Both buildings have corniced stone chimneys and are two storeys high. The symmetrical three-bay front of the farmhouse features a part-glazed door with a semicircular fanlight, framed by an architrave with Tuscan pilasters that support a broken pediment. The windows are sashes in stone surrounds, with 24 panes on the ground floor and 16 panes on the first floor. The two-bay cottage has a single sash window with glazing bars in a stone surround on each floor, and a panelled door to the right, also in a stone surround, which bears an inscription on the dated lintel.

The outbuildings consist of coursed rubble under graduated stone-flagged roofs. The barn, which is attached to the rear of the house, has a blocked door on the south side with an initialled and dated lintel reading M.R. 1760, and a 20th-century opening on the east return. There is also an early 19th-century single-storey wagon shed at the back of the cottage, featuring two elliptical-headed wagon arches with a central cylindrical pier.

In front of the house and cottage, early 19th-century area walls and railings are present. The walls, approximately two feet high, are made of sandstone blocks with segmental copings and include a quadrant with a central gate leading to the front of the house. The rusticated gate piers, which are square in plan and topped with ogee shapes, support wrought-iron railings and gates that have diagonally-set pointed standards.