Hillhouse Farmhouse

Hillhouse Farmhouse is a house dating from the mid-16th century, with alterations made in the late 16th century and the 19th century. It is timber framed and clad with red brick in Flemish bond, topped with a roof of handmade red clay tiles. The house has four bays facing northeast, which includes a two-bay 'hall' featuring a late 16th-century stack in the rear part of the left bay, a parlour or solar bay to the left, and a service bay to the right with an external stack at the end. There is a small single-storey lean-to extension at the left end. A 19th-century parallel range of red brick in Flemish bond extends to the rear of the three right bays. The building is two storeys high, with a northeast elevation that has a four-window range of 20th-century casements.

On the northwest elevation, there is one early 19th-century sash window with 16 lights on the ground floor, along with other 19th and 20th-century windows, and an early 19th-century six-panel door, where the top two panels are glazed and there is a plain overlight. The roof features a gablet hip at the left end and a dogtooth eaves course. Original sprockets are visible at the rear of the left bay, along with grouped diagonal shafts, jowled posts, and close studding. In the partition at the right end of the 'hall', there are twin service doorways with Tudor heads and a gap for a doorway to the former stair; the binding beam here is chamfered with broach stops. The binding beam in the middle of the 'hall' has been scarfed at the front end and secured with forelock bolts, possibly indicating the original stack's position. There are two chamfered longitudinal beams with late step stops and plain joists of horizontal section. A blocked unglazed window at the rear of the 'hall' has four diamond mortices and a shutter groove. On the first floor at the left end, there are three diamond mortices and a shutter groove for a former unglazed window. The solar bay was ceiled around 1600 with two ovolo-moulded longitudinal beams that meet similarly moulded timbers in the hip. The crownpost roof features axial bracing and is not sooted, with some original wattle and daub infill remaining. The house was built as a two-storey structure from the beginning, while still retaining the typical three-part medieval plan.