Great Fernhill Farmhouse

Great Fernhill Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating from the mid-17th century, with extensions added in the late 18th century and further alterations made later. It is constructed of red brick in a mixed bond and features a hipped roof covered with graded slate. The building is a large rectangular block with twin full-height gables and a late 18th-century gabled addition at the rear. It stands two storeys tall, with carved sprocketed eaves on the main range, and includes attics and a cellar.

The front wall has late 19th-century wooden windows with mullions and transoms, positioned one on either side of and three between large stacks. The first-floor windows are directly below the eaves, while the ground-floor windows are in partly infilled segmental-headed openings, with some blind and painted to imitate windows on the upper and lower left. The central entrance features a segmental-headed four-panel door with a rectangular barred overlight.

Prominent stepped external lateral stacks are located to the left and right, each topped with miniature gables, and have been rebuilt in 19th-century yellow brick. The left return has a three-bay design with a toothed floor band and a pilaster strip between the centre and right bays, featuring 19th-century mullioned and transomed windows, with the upper centre window being blind and the ground-floor windows in partly infilled segmental-headed openings. There is also a 19th-century single-storey brick lean-to against the right return.

At the rear, the twin gables have graded slate hanging on the top storey. The left gable, which houses the staircase, has an infilled mullioned window on the left wall, while the right gable has an external end stack. The lower 18th-century gabled range at the junction of the twin gables features a dentilled eaves cornice and a narrow external end stack. The rear wall of the main block has two infilled square-headed windows on the first floor and two 16-paned glazing bar sashes under an open lean-to on the ground floor.

Inside, there is an open-well staircase that rises from the ground floor to the attic, featuring a moulded handrail, carved newel-posts, and barleysugar balusters. The first-floor partition walls expose vertical posts, and throughout the interior, there are chamfered ceiling beams and ledged and braced doors. The cellar is barrel-vaulted and constructed of brick.