Chapel Farmhouse

Chapel Farmhouse is a farmhouse, now a house, dating to the early 15th century, with alterations in the late 16th century and a refronting around 1800. The structure is timber-framed with rendered infill on a rubble base, and the front is rubble with brick dressings. It has slate roofs and a brick stack on the ridge.

The farmhouse is a hall-house of four framed bays, oriented east/west. The original hall occupied the three western bays, with a two-storey bay at the west end. The hall was divided into two storeys in the 16th century, and a large chimney was inserted in the second bay from the east end, with the main entrance located directly behind it. The rear north elevation displays four rows of panels from sill to wall-plate. Wall posts are visible on the south front. An original collar and tie-beam truss, with a V-strut above the collar, is present at the east end.

The south front features 19th-century casement windows; two 2-light windows and one 3-light window are on the ground floor, and three 2-light windows are on the first floor, all with cambered brick heads. A 19th-century gabled timber porch with a ledged and battened door is positioned in the third bay from the west end. The north elevation retains remnants of two original 4-light wood-mullioned windows, and an original arched doorhead is recorded in the west end.

A 19th-century rubble wing adjoins the east end of the main building, extending for one bay and two storeys (lower in height than the original house). This wing has a 2-light casement on both floors of the south elevation, as well as a similar porch and door to those of the main building.

The interior retains original collar and tie-beam trusses in the roof. The two trusses in the former hall feature large raking struts, a V-strut above the collar, moulded tie-beams, moulded posts with shaped heads and cusped arch-braces. Subsidiary arch-braced collar trusses form segmental arches. The wall-plates are brattished, and there are three tiers of moulded purlins and three tiers of ornately cusped swept wind-braces, the central tier forming concave lozenge panels. A main roof truss separates the hall from the west bay; the roof above the west bay is of similar construction but with simpler detail. A 16th-century doorway is recorded in the wall dividing the former hall from the west bay. The main first floor fireplace incorporates reused slip-tiles with geometrical and foliated designs.

The farmhouse has been linked to a chapel in Deerfold Forest, which was supposedly used for heretical services, however, it appears to be a secular building of later date than the chapel.