The Hill

The Hill

A Grade A listed building, this mid 18th-century farmhouse has undergone early 19th-century alterations and additions, with a circa 1920 bathroom extension added to the rear. The main house is a 2-storey, 3-bay structure built of sandstone and whinstone rubble with dressed sandstone ashlar to openings. It features a pilastered doorpiece, scrolled skewputts, and is flanked by byres that form a courtyard to the front. The courtyard elevations of the house and byres are whitewashed, while the rear and side elevations are cement-rendered.

The front door is timber-panelled with a brass letter plate and fanlight, recessed within a Doric-pilastered doorpiece decorated with rosette carving to the soffit. Above the door are three arched decorative panels, with a heraldic device to the centre and rosettes to the outer panels. A stone inscription above reads "AB-JA". The house displays regular fenestration with two windows to the right of the south gable. A piend-roofed, roughcast bathroom extension of circa 1920 occupies the centre of the rear elevation, with a window above and a partially obscured former main door to the right, retaining the remains of a classical architrave with a prominent raised keystone.

The roof features corniced gablehead stacks with thackstanes and decorative clay cans, ashlar-coped skews with scrolled skew-putts, and graded grey Scottish slate. The windows to the front are timber sash and case with plate glass; windows to the sides and rear have 4-pane glazing.

INTERIOR

The interior of the house contains a central hall with a dog-leg staircase passing through a depressed arch. The drawing room to the right features a plain timber chimneypiece, roll-moulded cornice and timber shutters. The dining room, which was formerly the kitchen, lies to the left of the hall and retains a painted timber dresser with brass-knobbed drawers, panelled cupboards and box beds along the south wall. The kitchen, formerly a parlour, has roll-moulded cornicing and early 19th-century doorpieces. A former dairy contains a cheese press housing dated 1760 and a copper. The adjacent byre includes a working pump and an internal window opening into the dairy, with a reused datestone inscribed "16 ID BG 69". A timber staircase gives access to an upper floor added to the original house; the upper floor features circa 1900 tongue and groove panelling throughout. Both bedrooms in the main house have fairly plain chimneypieces. Timber-panelled doors throughout the interior, some with paterae at the upper corners of the architraves.

THE NORTH BYRE AND CIRCA 1740 HOUSE

Adjoining the north gable of the present house is a circa 1740 single-storey and attic building that was formerly the main house, with a lower gabled barn adjoining it to the west. On the courtyard elevation, a timber-boarded door to the right of the byre bears a datestone inscribed "AB IA 1748", with a single window to its left. A two-leaf timber-boarded door with a window above opens onto the west (gable) elevation of the byre. The north (rear) elevation displays irregular fenestration, with a half-glazed timber-boarded door to the left bearing a lintel datestone inscribed "JB GM 1813". The circa 1740 house to the left has two windows, one with a lintel datestone inscribed "AB 1740", and two further windows to the east elevation.

THE SOUTH BYRE

This gabled byre features a gablehead stack to the west and stone skews. It has timber-boarded doors and irregular fenestration. A later vehicle entrance to the east is crowned by a three-hole triangular dovecot above. A gateway links the byre with the house.

THE EAST BYRE

This former threshing barn lies to the east of the house, accessed via a depressed-arch entrance to the south. It retains slit windows and a timber-boarded threshing door to the north. A lower section adjoins to the east, with a datestone inscribed "JB 1803" at the east gable of the threshing barn, positioned above the roof ridge of the adjoining section. A 20th-century water tower stands further to the east.

OUTBUILDINGS

A rectangular, gabled outbuilding to the north of the north byre, possibly a former mill house, is constructed of random rubble with a corrugated metal roof.

GATES, GATEPIERS AND BOUNDARY WALLS

Low random rubble boundary walls with flat ashlar copes enclose the courtyard to the west (front) of the house. Ashlar gatepiers with corniced caps and square urns above flank the entrance; the south gatepier's urn is dated 1817. Decorative two-leaf cast-iron gates complete the front boundary. A random rubble boundary wall encloses the rear garden, with a wrought-iron gate hung between plain ashlar gatepiers and a stile nearby. Octagonal gatepiers with pyramidal caps stand at the end of the drive, with two-leaf iron gates and a stepped stile to the side.