Top Farmhouse

This is a late 16th-century farmhouse, extended in the late 17th century with later additions and alterations. It is timber-framed with rendered and painted brick infill, and painted brick additions, set beneath slate roofs, some of which are graded. The building has a roughly cruciform plan, originally featuring a central gable projecting to the front, with a long range extended by one bay to the right in the late 17th century.

The main architectural feature is the prominent gable, which has close studding to the ground floor, with a middle rail. The first floor has three tiers of square panels with cusped concave lozenges, while the attic has two tiers, both of which are jettied with moulded bressumers and carved brackets to the corners for the attic, and a closely spaced rail below the first-floor jetty. Twisted corner colonettes, zig-zag carving to the bressumers (the upper ones are also chamfered), and a 19th-century bargeboard with a pointed finial and pendant are also present. A close studding pattern is visible to the right return, revealing the former positions of windows on both floors. Brick cladding is on the left return. The right gable end has a toothed floor band and a plain attic band. Jettied sections have moulded bressumers and carved brackets.

The central gable has mid-19th-century four-light mullioned and transomed windows with cast-iron latticed lights; the first-floor window retains a 16th-century wooden cill with zig-zag decoration similar to that on the bressumers. Other windows include a three-light segmental-headed cast-iron latticed casement, two similar latticed windows directly below the eaves, a 19th-century segmental-headed cross window, and a late 19th-century canted bay with a contemporary French window and blind Gothic tracery patterns at the top. The entrance is in the angle to the left of the gable, through a late 19th-century panelled door within a glazed lean-to porch. A prominent red brick ridge stack with a toothed band and projecting corners sits immediately to the left. The left gable end has a 19th-century bargeboard and a pointed finial, while to the right is a shaped gable end likely dating back to the late 17th century. A 19th-century painted brick lean-to, projecting to the rear and attached to the left gable end, has a rounded corner.

The rear gable has been rebuilt in brick with plain floor bands to the first floor and attic. There is a catslide outshut to the right, and a 19th-century lateral stack with a star-section shaft to the left.

Internally, the ground floor of the gable (now a single room) has a moulded and chamfered cross-beam ceiling. Close studding, with infill removed, is exposed to the right, and a large stack with an inglenook fireplace is on the left. Rooms to the right of the gable have chamfered spine beams. Wide boarded oak floor boards are on the first floor, and there’s a steep, straight-flight staircase to the attic. The roof is a single-purlin arrangement in three bays, with queen-struts to the first truss from the front and raking struts from the tie beam to the principal rafters to the first truss from the rear. Short cusped windbraces are also present. The range to the right of the gable originally consisted of two bays with queen-post trusses, extended by one bay in the late 17th century; a toothed floor band marks the original gable end.