Helsington Laithes Farmhouse

Helsington Laithes Farmhouse is a manor house dating from the late 15th or early 16th century. It was partly rebuilt and extended around 1690 for Colonel J. Graham. The building features wet-dashed rubble on a plinth and has graduated slate roofs with projecting eaves, along with diagonally-set rendered chimneys. It is mainly two storeys with attics and has an asymmetrical plan, with the western block being the oldest surviving part.

The central block and eastern cross-wing were added later. A plaster wall panel, which may have originally been on the ceiling, displays the initials I. & A.B. (likely for James and Agnes Bellingham) and the date 1538, although the details resemble late 16th-century plasterwork found at Levens Hall, suggesting the date should be revised to 1583.

The symmetrical four-bay east elevation features a part-glazed central door flanked by mullioned and transomed three-light windows, all under hoodmoulds. Above, there are four three-light windows. Most of the windows throughout the building are likely from the 19th century, with many of the decorative leaded elements replaced in the 20th century, except for two original stone-mullioned windows on the south elevation of the western block. The ground floor window has two segment-headed lights, while the first-floor window has three ogee-headed lights, both under hoodmoulds.

The interior is primarily from the 19th century, but it includes some earlier studded plank doors and a 17th-century closed-string staircase with turned balusters, square newels, and a moulded handrail.