Howells Farmhouse

Howells Farmhouse is a manor house, later used as a farmhouse and now a private house, built in the late 17th century and extended into the 1970s. A late medieval front range was originally a west crosswing of a former open hall extending east, which was likely demolished in the late 17th century. A southwest parlour wing was added at this time, with the east range extended slightly south to match its line. A short dairy wing was added at the northwest, and an early 18th-century brewhouse likely followed, with a staircase constructed between the two rear wings and the interior adapted to the plan of a new house of that period. A kitchen was built at the north end of the east range in the 18th or 19th century. The house was carefully restored around 1970, with the west wing restored around 1975.

The house is timber-framed, rendered to resemble ashlar, with steep red tile roofs. It is a large two-story house situated on the west side of a former farmyard, facing east. The east front has a symmetrical arrangement of three first-floor windows and a central entrance. It has four-light flush casement windows to the left of the door, and a gabled Victorian timber porch to a half-glazed door. Stucco keystones are above the ground-floor windows. Tile creasing is visible above brick casing to the ground floor, under a roughcast finial.

The rear wall has a large 16th-century chimney to the south part of the front range, originally with one octagonal shaft and glazed brick patterns, but adapted in the late 17th century with three diagonal square shafts, coinciding with the addition of the southwest parlour wing and a first-floor fireplace. An 18th-century internal north gable chimney is also present. Three flush box sash windows with 12/6 panes are on the first floor of the south side. A canted bay window is at the south end of the front range.

The interior features exposed timbers and evidence of a jetty to the original front range, which was a three-bay crosswing with a crown-post roof. This includes a square crown-post with heavy square-section braces to the collar purlin and originally down-braces to the tie-beams. A shaped end of wallplate supported a former bargeboard, and there was originally no fireplace or partitions. The floor joists do not show an obvious break for a staircase, suggesting an external stair may have existed. A depressed 17th-century four-centred arched head is visible in the chamber fireplace above the parlour. The name originates from John de Hauile, recorded in 1294, and by 1580, the property was owned by the Kympton family.