Wellhouse Farmhouse

Wellhouse Farmhouse

A 16th-century farmhouse with later alterations, now listed Grade II. The house is attached to neighbouring properties: 10 Wellhouse to the west and Wellhouse Farm Barn to the east, which partially overhang its end walls but are not included in this listing.

The building is constructed of coursed rubble with quoins and a plinth, with dressed stone used for the end walls of the west wing. Roofs are covered in stone slates with timber gutters. Windows are either timber sashes with lead glazing or casements, set in ashlar surrounds with central mullions and sills, or with ashlar lintels and sills. The house follows a two-storey L-plan with a single-storey lean-to outshut at the rear.

The south-facing main elevation features a projecting hipped west wing with quoined corners. The wing displays paired sash windows to both floors, a small casement window in the right return, and a closely set corbel table beneath the eaves. The main elevation itself is asymmetrical, with a door on the ground floor to the left and a blocked doorway to the right. Between these stands a pair of four-light sashes. The blocked doorway is surrounded by ashlar moulding and has a four-centred arch triangular lintel serving as a datestone, incised with raised letters reading "Gbh 1576 GH / RH" and a pick symbol. The first floor has casement windows at each end, each with an ashlar surround and central mullion.

The left return wall is largely obscured by 10 Wellhouse, with only a small section exposed at its northern end, where a ground-floor casement window provides the only opening. The rear elevation shows the gabled north wall of the west wing, built of coursed tooled stone with quoined corners, and a low single-storey outshut to the left beneath a catslide roof. First and ground-floor casement windows are positioned off-centre to the right, flanked on the left by small rectangular windows lighting a first-floor bathroom and ground-floor larder respectively. The single-storey section is asymmetrical, with a heavy plank door to the left set within a recessed quoined and moulded ashlar surround with a four-centred arch triangular lintel matching that of the front blocked door. To the right is a partially blocked doorway forming a window to the cross-passage, and a small casement lights the outshut interior.

The main roof merges with the modern attached dwelling to the east and terminates in a gabled wall above the west range, with a catslide to the rear. The west wing roof is lower and has a gable to the north and hipped to the south. Both roofs drain via timber gutters carried on projecting stone corbels with cast-iron downpipes. A tall brick ridge stack rises from the main range, vented by a pair of Victorian buff-coloured clay chimney pots. A partially rendered stone chimney stack rises from the verge of the west range roof, topped with three brown salt-glazed chimney pots.

Interior

A stone-paved cross-passage is entered through a half-glazed plank door beneath a substantial oak beam, hung with several wrought-iron latches, bolts, and a pair of narrow wrought-iron strap hinges on pintles. The passage has wainscot panelling to both sides. A wall post within the west wall thickness supports a wall plate spanning two-thirds of the passage length; the low ceiling is carried on plastered timber beams. Beyond the wall post the ceiling rises to form the soffit of the outshut catslide roof. Adjacent to the wall post sits a stone-lined cupboard recess, and immediately left of the front door is a partially exposed door frame. An open doorway leads into a lobby space within the west wing, providing access to the drawing room, kitchen, and larder.

The drawing room has a low ceiling with exposed reeded joists supported by chamfered and stopped beams. Two exposed timber lintels appear in the north wall, and the west wall features a large stone fireplace with moulded surround and deep triangular lintel. The kitchen has a chimney breast in the west wall and a low ceiling carried on two chamfered oak beams. The larder is entered through an oak door with four round-arched panels and reeded moulding; it has a stone floor with a timber hatch descending to a cellar, and a wall post raised on a stone plinth exposed in the east wall. The dining room, opposite the lobby across the cross-passage, has a low ceiling supported by two plastered beams and a central doorway with narrow rectangular fanlight giving access to the stairs. A plank and batten door at the northern end of the cross-passage, hung on wrought-iron T-head strap hinges with oval ends, opens into a laundry room within the outshut. The rear door in the north wall is a heavy plank door hung on a pair of long wrought-iron strap T-hinges with three bolts and a latch. A simple plank door in the south wall accesses the under-stairs space. A 20th-century stone chimney stack stands in the south-east corner.

A plain staircase rises to the first-floor landing, protected by a plain spindle balustrade. The northern wall of the staircase features a jowled timber wall post raised on a stone plinth, an arcade plate, and a slightly up-swinging knee brace. Part of a tie beam and the base of a principal rafter from a kingpost truss are exposed beneath the ceiling, one end resting on the wall post. Two small bedrooms on the southern side of the landing are entered through doorways with small rectangular fanlights; in each, the roof slope forms the ceiling above a low window. Doorways at the western end of the landing give access to a small corridor and bathroom within the west wing. The corridor leads to a rear bedroom with a chimney stack against the west wall, and the master bedroom to the front. The master bedroom has exposed floorboards, a low ceiling, and a deeply splayed brick fireplace with an Adams-style fire surround in the west wall.

A Minor Amendment was made to this listing on 29 April 2022 to correct a typographical error in the address.