Downholme

Downholme is a vernacular house with timber-framed origins, substantially developed through the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The building stands on stone pads and a rendered brick plinth, possibly encasing some original timber-framing. The gabled roofs employ re-used timbers and are clad with 20th-century orange pantiles. Some tamped 'Lincolnshire ash floor' survives within the house.

The building's plan reflects its evolution. It began as an open hall with a small detached kitchen to the rear. The insertion of a central chimney stack converted it to a baffle-entry house. The front door was subsequently repositioned off-centre, and a through-passage entry was created, likely coinciding with the addition of a rear outshut stair. In the first half of the 19th century, a rear kitchen range was added.

Exterior

The south (front) elevation presents a two-storey, two-bay facade with mid to late 19th-century four-light timber sash windows featuring partially exposed sash boxes and brick sills on both floors. The ground-floor windows are flanked by stucco keystones. The off-centre front door to the west has a recessed, stepped moulded surround, a plain stucco frieze, and a timber pediment with dentil decoration. Exposed brickwork and a pad stone mark the south-west corner.

The west (side) elevation is a rendered double-pile wall with an external chimney stack attached to the gable of the front range. A two-light timber sash window with partially exposed sash box sits at the south-west ground-floor corner, and a small blocked window opens to the attic. The two-storey rear (north) 19th-century range's gable contains a kitchen doorway flanked by a plain glass window and a four-light Yorkshire sash on the first floor.

The north (rear) elevation features a two-bay rear range with pairs of four-light sash windows on both floors. This range does not extend the full width of the house, butting against an 18th-century cat-slide extension and a late 19th-century single-storey storeroom with a mono-pitch roof. The exposed rear wall of the cat-slide has a ground-floor window opening, and its first floor—visible above the storeroom roof—contains a four-light Yorkshire sash and a twelve-light sash with crown glass panes and exposed sash box.

The east (side) elevation is now largely obscured by the adjacent Down Hall, though the east wall of the 19th-century larder remains exposed to its full height.

Interior: Ground Floor

The entrance passage runs from the front door, with the central chimney stack forming its east wall. At its far end, it provides offset open access to the rear outshut and is flanked by doors to the drawing room (west) and parlour (east). The passage ceiling exposes a massive plain chamfered beam with chamfered and stopped floor joists, supporting the first floor along the central east-west axis; the beam's eastern end rests within the chimney.

The drawing room (south-west ground-floor) is spanned by this central beam. Timber mouldings nailed to the beam's sides and walls form a cornice, while the room above's floor joists are under-sailed by a tongue-and-grooved panelled ceiling. A late 19th-century cast-iron fireplace with tiled surrounds and hearth sits within a grey marble mantelpiece on simple scroll brackets against the west wall.

The parlour (south-east ground-floor) is entered via an early 18th-century three-panelled door. A beam with sunken scroll moulding and straight stops spans the full width. The plastered ceiling carries a moulded picture rail near the top. The central chimney breast, set against the west wall, contains a modern four-centred brick-arched fireplace offset to the south, with a stone slab hearth and a brick-lined floor safe immediately in front. Witness marks in the south wall indicate the former baffle-entry doorway.

A side door in the west wall of the north range gives direct access to the kitchen, which has a substantial north-south spanning beam in its ceiling. A chimney stack projects from the west wall with a bracketed timber mantelpiece. Doors from the kitchen lead to the former 19th-century larder (north-east corner) and to the outshut passage with its staircase (south-east corner).

The simple pine dog-leg staircase features plain square-section balusters and a polished timber handrail, with tongue-and-groove panelled undersurface. A section of stone plinth walling beneath the stairs may indicate a former detached kitchen. An early 18th-century three-panelled door in the eastern wall accesses a storeroom with a step down to a brick-lined floor and slop-stone sink.

Interior: First Floor

The staircase leads to a landing providing access to a 19th-century bedroom and small bathroom. The bedroom, sited over the kitchen, is heated by a small 19th-century cast-iron fireplace in its west wall. Beyond the stairs, an open doorway accesses two further bedrooms flanking the central chimney, each with a large exposed rough hewn ceiling beam. A shared walk-in cupboard against the chimney's southern side opens from both bedrooms. The west bedroom has a small 19th-century cast-iron grate in a plain pine surround. Nearly all first-floor doors are early 18th-century three-panelled examples with various H or L hinges and drop latches.

Roof and Attic

The front-range roof employs common rafters supported by clasped purlins on either side with occasional collars; the central brick chimney stack rises through the ridge. The exposed internal faces of the early 18th-century brick gables show tumbled brickwork at the verges, and the west gable contains a small boarded-up attic window. The rear-range roof uses re-used timber common rafters with nailed plank purlins clasped at each gable end by collars.