Downton Farmhouse

Downton Farmhouse is a timber-framed farmhouse dating to the late 16th and early to mid-17th centuries, with later 19th-century additions. The construction incorporates a painted brick plinth, timber framing, brick infill, partial re-facing and plain tile roofs. The building is arranged in an L-shape, comprising a 17th-century range of five framed bays and a parlour wing set at a right angle to the northwest of one framed bay. The main 17th-century range is two storeys high, while the parlour wing is two storeys and has an attic.

The parlour wing features a jettied first floor with a moulded bressumer, and a jettied gable with an ovolo-moulded bressumer and carved brackets. The main range has two brick ridge stacks positioned off-centre to the left and right, along with an integral lateral stack to the parlour wing. A centrally positioned 19th-century gabled dormer incorporates a two-light wooden casement. The 16th-century parlour wing has close-studded ground-floor framing with a middle rail and S-shaped tension braces, and a square-panelled first floor and gable with diagonal framing forming lozenge patterns, and close studding beneath windows. The 17th-century range exhibits square panels from sole-plate to wall-plate. One gable end has Herefordshire-style lattice framing, while the other displays an exposed collar and tie-beam truss with queen struts and V-struts.

The northwest front of the main range has a 19th-century two-light wooden casement to the left and two late 20th-century two-light casements to the right. The ground floor includes an early 19th-century sixteen-pane glazing bar sash window to the left and a late 20th-century two-light wooden casement to the right. An early 19th-century door with six flush panels (the top two glazed) and a two-part rectangular overlight is located to the left. Three three-light wooden casements are present in the right-hand gable end, and late 19th-century three-light wooden casements are in the left-hand gable end. The parlour wing projecting to the left has a blocked first-floor late 16th-century oriel window with a moulded wooden cill and shaped brackets. Late 19th-century three-light wooden casements are found in each floor of the return front, along with a blocked doorway to the left. A late 19th-century addition adjoins the angle to the right, featuring a truncated brick lateral stack and a segmental-headed two-light casement on each floor. A large, late 19th-century two-storey brick addition extends at a right angle to the southeast.

Inside, the ground-floor room of the parlour wing showcases a chamfered beam with ogee stops and carved scroll brackets, chamfered joists and dragon beams with ogee stops, a corner fireplace with an 18th-century mantel shelf and panelled surround, and a 17th- or early 18th-century six-panelled door. The main range has tie-beam trusses with inclined struts, frame posts chamfered up to jowls, chamfered beams, a large open fireplace in the kitchen, and 17th-century panelled doors with strap hinges throughout. The plan retains a cross passage with two large bays at the upper end and two smaller bays at the lower end; there is no evidence that the main north-east/south-west range was ever an open hall.