Nos. 6 and 8, HOPTON CASTLE

Farmhouse, latterly divided into two cottages and now returned to a single house. The building dates from the late 15th century, with substantial remodelling in the 17th century and extensions added in the mid to late 19th century, followed by later additions and alterations. It is timber-framed, partly of cruck construction, with rendered and painted brick infill. The exterior is encased or rebuilt in roughly coursed limestone rubble to the front and sides, with machine-tile roofs.

The original plan was probably an open-hall house of three cruck-framed bays, extended by two bays to the right in the early to mid-17th century. At the same period, a gabled cross-wing projecting to the front was added. A 19th-century addition extends to the left. The building is one storey and attic with a cellar beneath the cross wing.

The timber framing is exposed to the rear of the main range and to the rear gable of the cross wing, showing square panels and three bays from cill to wall-plate with short straight tension braces to the left corner and v-struts from collar to gable. The fenestration is irregular. The 19th-century range to the left of the cross-wing has a 20th-century casement at ground-floor level with a contemporary gabled eaves dormer immediately to the right. The gable of the cross-wing has one 20th-century casement to each floor, including to the cellar. Three small late 19th-century casements alternate with doorways to the main range—a 20th-century half-glazed door to the left and a 19th-century boarded door immediately to the right of centre. Nineteenth-century casements are set within timber-framed gabled eaves dormers to the left and centre, with a 2-light leaded casement to the prominent timber-framed gable to the right, which has v-struts from the collar. Entrance to the range to the left of the cross-wing is through a 20th-century rubblestone lean-to porch housing a half-glazed door in the angle with the cross-wing.

The main range has an external end stack with a red brick top to the right, with a rubblestone lean-to behind housing a bread oven. A 20th-century red brick stack stands immediately behind the ridge to the left. The cross-wing has an external lateral stack with a red brick top to the left, and the 19th-century range to the left has an external end stack with a red brick top.

Internally, the main ground-floor room of No. 8 has a chamfered spine beam and heavy joists, with an inglenook fireplace and chamfered wooden lintel to a large stack to the left. The cross-wing has a deep-chamfered spine beam, with a straight-flight staircase at its junction with the 19th-century range to the left. An oak winder staircase sits in the angle between the cross-wing and the main range, topped with a plank door. The first floor displays a double-purlin roof with two true cruck trusses, apparently resting on girding beams but possibly extending to ground level, the right truss with a slightly cambered collar. The cross wing spans two bays with a central collar and tie-beam truss with v-struts from the collar.

A partition wall with vertical posts separates No. 8 from the right part of the main range (No. 6), with no internal access between the two parts. No. 6 has a timber-framed cross wall to the left on the ground floor with a spine wall running at right-angles, both with square panels. The centre room has a stone-flag floor while the right room has a tile floor and a 19th-century cast-iron cooking range set in a contemporary wooden fireplace surround; a bread oven is located to the left. Two chamfered spine beams with stepped ogee stops are present. An oak staircase at the back wall is an insertion, as evidenced by sawn-off joist ends visible to the girding beam. A possibly 17th-century infilled 2-light wooden mullion window is set to the back wall. The first floor has wide boarded oak floorboards and visible timber frame (square panels) to the back wall. A central queen-strut truss with upper and lower collars is present. A late 20th-century flat-roofed addition to the rear on the left is not of special architectural interest.