Pipe Elm Farmhouse

Farmhouse. It dates from around the early 17th century, with extensions added in the 18th and early 19th centuries and further alterations in the later 19th century. The structure is timber-framed, with brick extensions and roughcast to the front and ends. The roof is tiled, with gabled ends and a crested ridge tile; the east extension is taller with parapeted gables. Brick stacks are located axially and at the rear and gable ends.

The original layout comprised a 2-bay timber frame, the left bay narrower and divided axially, while the right bay was heated by a stack on the right gable (now an axial stack). In the 18th century, a tall, two-storey, single-room-plan brick extension was built at the east end, and around the early 19th century a kitchen wing was added behind the original timber-framed section on the left. Later in the 19th century, the front was remodeled in a picturesque Gothic style, including the addition of a front porch and outshuts to the rear.

The south front is asymmetrical with four windows. It features late 19th-century 2 and 3-light wooden mullion-transom windows with horizontal glazing bars; three are on the first floor, with small gables breaking the eaves and decorated with ornate shaped and pierced bargeboards with pendants. A gabled porch is centrally positioned, also featuring similar bargeboards, and has a moulded pointed arch doorway with a panelled and glazed door. Attic windows are in the gable ends; the right gable end has a platband.

The rear has exposed timber framing at the centre, brick nogging, a lateral stack, an outshut on the left, and a wing on the right. This wing features a 16-pane sash window and a 3-light casement with glazing bars on its inner face, as well as an outshut on its gable end.

Inside, the centre and left rooms have chamfered axial beams; the centre room’s beam is deeply chamfered with a broach stop. It has a large fireplace with a 19th-century chimneypiece. The room on the right has plastered-over axial beams, a Victorian slate chimneypiece, and an 18th-century fielded two-panel door. The chamber above the left room also has a chamfered axial beam. The attic spaces are ceiled, but a queen-strut truss and large purlins are exposed. The roof over the right extension is intact with two tiers of large purlins, a diagonal ridgepiece, and common rafters, dating back to the 18th century.