Overtown Farmhouse

A house dating from the 17th century with significant alterations and additions from the mid-18th and mid-19th centuries. Built of rubble with a slate roof, the building comprises a main range running east-west (formed from two separate 17th-century builds), a late 17th-century south stair projection that was greatly extended in the mid-18th century to create a south wing, and a north wing of mid-19th-century date with possible 18th-century remains. The house is two storeys with an attic.

The east gable wall of the main range features a chamfered one-light window to the left of a projecting chimney stack, with similar windows on either side of the stack at first-floor level, and a blocked attic window. An earlier roof line is visible in the stonework, indicating that this end was formerly thatched. The south wall of this section comprises one bay with sash windows with glazing bars and plain reveals. At ground-floor level are the remains of a mullioned window surround. The attic contains a blocked chamfered window of late 17th-century type, which post-dates the raising of the eaves level.

The east wall of the south wing is marked by a straight-joint showing the junction between the late 17th-century stair projection and the mid-18th-century wing. To the right is a one-light chamfered window, with a mid-18th-century sashed window with glazing bars and cyma-moulded surround lighting the stair. The east wall of the north wing is largely blank except for a 19th-century six-pane sash on the ground floor. To the left, in the angle with the main range, is a lean-to porch covering an inner doorway with a lintel inscribed 1759. The south wall of the south wing spans three bays with openings featuring cyma-moulded stone surrounds and sashed windows with glazing bars; a door is positioned in the right-hand bay. Chimneys are situated on the east wall of the main range, the north gable of the north wing, the east and west walls of the south wing, and the south gable of the south wing.

Interior features are substantial. The east end of the main range has a fireplace with splayed rubble sides and a plain stone lintel, and a chamfered main ceiling joist. The west end of the main range contains plastered main joists and steps descending to a cellar beneath the north wing. One room in the south wing is lined with painted bolection-moulded panelling of early 18th-century type, which has been re-used and cut to fit its present dimensions. A round-headed cupboard in the north wall is flanked by Doric pilasters and has painted figures inside its doors. The stair in the south wing is of late 17th-century type with a closed string, moulded handrail, and barley-sugar balusters. It was probably re-arranged when the wing was extended, though there is no obvious structural evidence for this alteration.

On the first floor, the bedroom at the east end of the main range has pegged oak floorboards, a fireplace with a mid-18th-century stone surround, and a high ceiling that now cuts across the blocked attic window in the south wall. The west end of the main range has an inserted partition forming a corridor. The doorway to the stair has a moulded plaster border and a timber doorframe with late 17th-century scribed mouldings. The south wall of the west bedroom retains plaster remains including a moulded cornice and a panel with moulded border. A blocked one-light window probably lit a closet. Near the west gable wall is a ceiling beam that likely supported a partition screening a firehood, and the rearrangement of floorboards suggests the removal of such a hood. A cupboard under the attic stair on the north side is formed from bolection-moulded pine panelling. In the north wall are two mullioned windows, now blocked by the north wing; one is more fully exposed and displays a rebate and chamfer of late 17th-century type. The bedroom of the south wing contains raised and fielded panelling of mid-18th-century type and a stone fireplace surround of similar date.

In the attic, the truss over the east end of the main range is visible, featuring a collar and a re-used tie-beam dating from the late 17th or 18th century, from when the thatched roof was replaced. The truss over the south wing incorporates part of a re-used cruck blade. The truss at the west end of the main range has principals rising from timber corbels and a high pegged collar.