Canal Cottage

Canal Cottage is a house and attached stables, built around 1820. It was constructed to serve the northern extension of the Lancaster Canal, which was completed in 1819 and involved the construction of the Hincaster Tunnel. The building is constructed from rubble limestone, with some painted areas, and has roughly-shaped quoins, coped gables, broad gable stacks, and a Westmorland slate roof laid to diminishing courses. The plan is linear, with heated rooms at either end, and stabling and storage in between.

The front of the building has five bays, with two storeys and attics, and includes a two-bay single-storey extension to the right. The house occupies two bays at the right-hand end of the main range, with stacked windows to the end bay, featuring 20th-century joinery in lower openings with segmental heads. A 20th-century lean-to porch encloses the doorway. A taking-in door to the first floor is located centrally. A vertical joint is visible, defined by a line of former quoins. A doorway to the ground floor is at the left end bay.

The rear of the building features stacked windows to the left end bay, with ground and first floor openings having two-over-two-pane sashes under segmental arches. To the right is a small lean-to, followed by a ground floor window, and a blocked opening above. A wide stable doorway is located centrally, beneath a stone lintel and featuring a boarded door. A stone stairway has been added leading to a first-floor taking-in door. The end bay to the right has a wide stable door, and window openings to the first and attic floors.

The interior of the building has not been inspected.

The cottage and stabling were part of the Lancaster Canal’s extension from Tewinfield to Kendal. The canal's route near Hincaster was influenced by the proximity of the Sedgewick gunpowder works. A wharf at Hincaster, the entrance to the Hincaster Tunnel, and the cottage and stables were nearby, suggesting the buildings were intended to aid in the management of these facilities.

Canal Cottage is a rare surviving example of a combined dwelling and stable. Despite some minor alterations and additions, it illustrates important aspects of inland waterway management in the early 19th century and contributes to the setting of the adjacent entrance portal to the Hincaster Tunnel.