Salmond'S Farmhouse

Salmond's Farmhouse is a timber-framed house of H-plan, combining early 15th and 16th-century elements with later extensions. The building is plastered and roofed with handmade and machine-made red clay tiles.

The structure comprises a 2-bay main range facing approximately west, with a 16th-century internal stack positioned in front of the right bay; an early 15th-century 2-bay cross-wing to the left, with a 17th or 18th-century external stack to the left of the front bay; and an early to mid-16th-century 2-bay cross-wing to the right, with a 17th-century external stack to the right and a late 19th-century external stack to the rear. Small single-storey lean-tos stand behind the main range and left cross-wing. The cross-wings rise to 2 storeys, while the main range comprises one storey with attics.

The main range features one 20th-century splayed bay of casements and two early 19th-century sashes of 8+8 lights fitted with 20th-century external shutters perforated with hearts. On the first floor are two early 19th-century sashes of 8+8 lights and one 20th-century sash of 6+6 lights within a large gabled dormer. An 18th-century door of 4 fielded and 2 glazed panels stands at the right end of the main range in the position of the original door, sheltered by a 20th-century lean-to porch. The main stack features two grouped diagonal shafts, rebuilt in the 19th century.

The left cross-wing is jettied to the front, supported on two plain brackets, with original gablet hips at front and back of the roof. The right cross-wing displays a gabled front with a moulded tie-beam and an original gablet hip to the rear. In the left elevation of the left cross-wing, the ground floor contains an early 19th-century horizontal sash of 9+9 lights, and the first floor has an early 19th-century casement. Graffiti dated 1899 appears on the rear stack. The main range's shorter service end bay to the right contains an inserted stack that leaves the original cross-entry unobstructed; a 17th or 18th-century ledged and boarded rear door with original hinges survives here.

Internally, a large wood-burning hearth faces left, with some 20th-century rebuilding at the sides and rear; the original mantel beam is retained. The ground floor contains a mid-16th-century inserted floor comprising a deeply chamfered axial beam, unstopped, and chamfered joists of horizontal section with step stops, supported on pegged clamps and partly plastered to the soffits. In the front left corner of the ground-floor room stands an early 19th-century attached corner cupboard with an arched head, three profiled shelves, and a panelled door below.

The main range roof uses clasped purlin construction, mostly unsooted, though it incorporates some smoke-blackened rafters from a former crownpost roof, ceiled to the soffits of the collars. The left cross-wing was originally the parlour and solar but became the service wing when the larger right cross-wing was built in the early to mid-16th century. Most joists in the front bay are original, of heavy wide section, jointed to the binding beam with unrefined central tenons; those in the rear bay are mostly replacements; all are plain. One of two arched braces to the binding beam survives. A stove sits in a wood-burning hearth. The first floor features a cambered central tie-beam with two arched braces and a 16th or 17th-century studded partition between the bays. A simple collar-rafter roof, complete and original, was boarded to the soffits of the rafters and collars around 1900.

The right cross-wing has an original close-studded partition between the bays on both storeys, with matched display braces trenched into the front of the studs in the lower storey. Two 20th-century grates are present. The crownpost roof is complete and original, with axial braces. Forelocks in the front tie-beam indicate an early repair or alteration. The house retains several 18th-century ledged and boarded internal doors on original hinges. Pictorial evidence indicates the rear stack was built around 1885.