Building Form

A summary of the character of traditional buildings within the National Park would draw attention to the simplicity of form and understated quality of detailing which gives them the beautiful reticence so widespread in Northumberland. Buildings were constructed within a vernacular tradition constrained by the structural capabilities of stone and timber. Narrow buildings that allow daylight to enter from both sides are laid out to create deliberately sheltered and sun warmed outdoor space.

The gable wall detail has a strong impact on the building form; in most buildings the roofing material modestly joins the top of the gable wall with slate or tiles pointed almost flush with the gable plane. In others more strikingly the wall is carried up to dominate the roof edge with a tabling, sometimes finished with a decorative kneeler at the bottom of each slope.

Roof eaves are kept tight to the wall face and overhangs are reduced to a minimum; with the gutter and downpipe fixed close to the wall. Extended roof planes or eaves are uncommon, though mid to late 19th century estate cottages – typically the front lodge or the Gamekeepers Cottage – did quite often have the wide overhang and projecting verges with elaborate barge-boards of the time.

Window and door openings in the traditional building form are limited to the structural possibilities of simple stone lintels or beams of cast-iron or timber: they appear as holes within a solid object. The timber doors and windows filling these holes tend to recede, emphasising the thickness and quality of the wall.

The discussion of the character of traditional buildings in Northumberland National Park would not be complete without acknowledging the influence their setting has had on their form. Time and again the happy relationship between building and landscape is obvious: a response to slope, view, sun and shelter has generated important decisions on the placing and form of building. The result seems to acquire a natural dignity which is all in keeping with the quality of the wider landscape of the Park.