Tookeys Farmhouse

Farmhouse, likely dating from the 16th century, with significant alterations in the mid-18th, mid-19th, and mid-20th centuries. The building is timber-framed with painted brick and rendered infill, set on a sandstone base, and incorporates brick replacement walling, refacing, and additions; it has plain tiled roofs. The layout is of a hall and cross-wing; the main part comprises three framed bays aligned east/west, with a single-bay north wing extending from the central bay. An external sandstone chimney with three star-shaped stacks is situated north of the west bay. At the east end is a two-bay intersecting cross-wing, lower in height and partly refaced, with an external chimney and three tall star-shaped stacks on the east elevation. This chimney is enclosed by a two-bay brick addition forming a lobby-entry plan.

The house is two storeys high, with an attic and a cellar. The south front elevation of the main part has a 20th-century multi-paned door with a cambered head and a 20th-century lean-to with a canted bay window. The cross-wing gable end has a 3-light casement window on both the ground and first floors, both with cambered heads. The brick addition to the right features a ground and first floor casement window (the ground floor one having a cambered head) and a 20th-century gabled timber-framed porch with brick infill and two leaded lights in the front and side elevations.

Inside, the ground floor of the main part features an elaborate early 17th-century plaster ceiling decorated with fruit, flowers, vine scrolls, and winged putti heads, alongside some contemporary oak panelling. Behind the south elevation's lean-to addition, two ovolo-mullioned windows survive – a 3-light window on the ground floor and a 4-light window on the first floor. The north wing gable apex contains a plaster fleur-de-lys. The roof structure includes collar and tie-beam trusses, predominantly with two collars and struts throughout, with a concave V-strut in the apex of the west end truss and decorative concave lozenge panels in the north wing truss. The main part's framing includes two rows of close-set studding at first floor level, decorative herringbone panels, and a jettied attic storey with a moulded bressummer at the west gable end. The north wing has a row of close-set studding at ground floor level with long straight braces and herringbone panelling at first floor level, while the north gable end of the cross-wing features three panels from sill to wall-plate with short straight braces.

Local tradition states the house was built on the site of King John’s Hunting Lodge, which was originally moated, and became the home of the Tookey family in the late medieval period.