Lower Nicholson Farmhouse

Farmhouse. Dating from the 17th century, or possibly earlier, with subsequent alterations and additions. The structure is timber-framed with plaster infilling, a stone rubble plinth, and a stone tile roof with gabled ends. Stone gable-end stacks have later brick shafts. The original plan comprised three rooms: a parlour to the west with a gable-end stack, an unheated central room with a direct entrance from the front and a lower end on the east, divided axially. The central room may have been an open hall with a floor inserted in the 17th century. A lower range set back on the right-hand end was likely an outbuilding converted for domestic use. A small 19th-century brick outshut is located on the left end. The main range has an asymmetrical two-story front with a three-window facade. It features 2 and 3-light casement windows and a plank door to the left of centre. A timber-framed extension, one storey with an attic, adjoins the right-hand side, with stone rubble on the ground floor and a stone gable end, a 20th-century dormer window, and 20th-century casement windows. A red brick outshut with a plank door is on the left end. The rear features one casement window on the first floor and another on the ground floor near a doorway with a plank door. Part of the rear wall has been rebuilt in painted stone rubble, and there is a projecting range on the left with a stone ground floor and timber framing above. The west room has intersecting chamfered ceiling beams, exposed wall framing, and a small, 19th-century brick fireplace in the gable end with an oven to the side. The centre room has two chamfered axial beams and a winder stair at the back. The right-hand end room has an axial timber-framed partition, and the front room features chamfered intersecting beams, with the axial beam having carved stops. The range to the right-hand end has a chamfered cross-beam with run-out stops. Local tradition suggests that Lower Nicholson Farmhouse was owned, but not lived in, by John Dyer (1699-1757), a Welsh poet, itinerant artist, and clergyman, and author of topographical poems including 'Grongar Hill' (1726), 'Ruins of Rome' (1740), and 'The Fleece' (1757).