Collins Cross Farmhouse

This is a hall house dating back to approximately 1500, with alterations made in the 17th and 20th centuries. It is timber framed and has plaster walls, with a roof covered in handmade red clay tiles. The original layout comprised a two-bay hall aligned north-south, with a two-storeyed parlour or solar at the north end and a two-storeyed service wing at the south end. An axial chimney stack was inserted in the south bay of the hall around 1600, with an external chimney stack at both the north and south ends. The south chimney has a large bread oven with a gabled roof to the southwest. A lean-to extension is situated to the west of the main hall and parlour, including a lean-to porch in the southwest angle. The house is single-storey with an attic at the south end, while the rest of the building is two storeys high. The timber frame is partly exposed internally, revealing jowled wallposts and curved bracing trenched to the outside of the studs. The central tiebeam of the hall was removed, exposing lap dovetail tying joints with entrant shoulders. The original joists in the parlour/solar end run longitudinally, raised approximately 18cm at the north end. The floor in the service wing was entirely rebuilt in the 20th century, but visible mortices suggest it originally mirrored the style of the north end. A floor was inserted into the hall around 1600. The roof of the service wing is of a clasped purlin construction with massive curved wind braces. The walls of the hall and parlour/solar end were raised by approximately one metre in the 17th century, and the roof was rebuilt using a clasped purlin construction. Evidence suggests there was once a large window on the west side of the hall. The studs dividing the hall and parlour are exposed, featuring three tenons and mortices which would have supported a former fixed bench on the south side. The bread oven is of an elliptical plan and is larger than a typical domestic size, complete except for its door and likely dates from the 18th century.