Baxter Wood Farmhouse

Baxter Wood Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating from the late 17th century to early 18th century, with alterations and changes to the windows made in the mid-19th century. The building is constructed of coursed rubble with some old brick infill at the gables, topped with a pantiled roof and rebuilt brick chimneys. The house is arranged in a two-storey L-plan, with a north wing and a later west wing. The garden front features two bays on each re-entrant side, including a part-glazed, 6-panel door in the west wing and mainly 4-pane sash windows, along with a lateral stack on the north wing. The south and east gables display flush alternate quoins, with the quoins on the east gable being long and thin. The east gable also has a low plinth and possibly a 17th-century oak window frame on the first floor. The steeply-pitched roof has coped gables and end chimneys. The rear of the west wing has an infilled north bay with inserted 4-pane sashes, and there is a small, possibly 17th-century oak window frame on the first floor of the south side. Inside, there is a late 17th-century closed-string dogleg staircase with two flights and a landing rail in the west wing, featuring squat turned balusters and a square-section moulded handrail. A wood winder stair rises inside the east gable of the north wing. It is believed that Peter Smart, the Puritan, died at Baxter Wood around 1625.