Dale House, Westerdale

Dale House is a mid to later 18th century house, facing east/west, with sympathetic additions made in 1910 and 1933. The exterior is all white harled, with chamfered and tooled ashlar margins and dressings.

The original central portion of the house is a three-storey, five-bay double pile structure with symmetrical fenestration on both the east and west fronts. The main entrance is located on the first floor (piano nobile) of the east elevation, masked by a projecting, finialled gabled porch with a side door accessed by a flight of steps. A further doorway is located on the ground floor immediately to the left of the porch projection, and another in the centre of the west front, both with modern lean-to porches. Small, blind oculus features are located in the centre of each gable head.

A two-storey, four-bay wing was added in 1910, adjoining the north gable. This wing is also double pile with symmetrical fenestration on the east elevation, and features a two-storey canted window filling two bays at the northwest of the west front. Long windows are visible on the first floor. A further two-storey, three-bay cottage wing extends at right angles to the north.

In 1933, a long, two-storey, wide single-bay drawing room wing was built to the south gable. This wing abuts the original south gable and projects forward from it on the east side, featuring an off-centre wallhead gabled stack. A wide canted bay window on the ground floor of the east gable illuminates the drawing room, with two first-floor windows above and a datestone in the gablehead.

The windows have 12- and 15-pane glazing, and there are simple corniced end stacks. The roofs are covered in slate.

The interior has been altered, but retains the original scale and plate stair in the early portion of the house. Plaster cornices are present throughout, with those in the 1910 and 1933 wings being excellent reproductions of 18th and 19th century patterns. Notable features include good chimney pieces, especially in the Cedar Room (a 1910 first-floor drawing room), which has an Adamesque carved wood chimney piece with a green marble surround. Panelled doors are also present.

A simple coped drystone wall surrounds the house. The 1933 datestone is initialled WMT and CEWL, referring to Murray Threipland, the family who have owned the property for many generations.