Bockenfield Farmhouse

Bockenfield Farmhouse is a house dating from circa 1660, built by Robert Trollope for the Heron family, and incorporating earlier fabric. A 19th-century rear outshut was added later. The front is of squared stone with dressings, while the returns are of large rubble; the roof is slate-covered. The house has two storeys over cellars, with four bays. A chamfered plinth is present, and the end bays are flanked by rusticated pilaster buttresses topped with pineapple finials just below the eaves. The central double doors are flush-panelled and set within a moulded flat-pointed arch, flanked by detached barley-sugar columns that carry a pedimented entablature displaying the Heron family arms. Above the doors is a blocked circular window in a cable-moulded surround, surmounted by a raised lozenge-shaped block. Blocked two-light mullioned cellar windows are partly buried. Three-light transomed windows with raised cable-moulded surrounds are found on the ground floor in bays 2 and 3, as well as on the first floor in bay 4, with varied glazing. Other windows have been altered; the ground-floor window in bay 4 has a reused 17th-century fireplace as a surround. Coped gables and stepped, corniced end stacks are also present. The returns show earlier walling and blocked square, chamfered windows to the first floor. Inside, a dog-leg staircase features a closed string, column balusters, and a plain domed handrail. A blocked two-light mullioned window is located near the staircase. This building is of group value, demonstrating significant architectural and historical merit.