The Farmhouse at Pond Farm, Stoven

The Farmhouse at Pond Farm, Stoven

This is a multi-phase vernacular farmhouse, primarily of the second half of the 18th century but incorporating some earlier 17th-century fabric. The building is constructed of red brick with structural timber components and roofs covered in unglazed pantiles.

The house is four bays long and two storeys high, with gables to the east and west. The brick walls are laid predominantly in Flemish bond. A larder is attached to the south side of the eastern bay, and at the east end the building extends southwards to connect with a threshing barn. A lean-to extension projects from the north side at the west end. Evidence survives of a 17th-century lobby entry plan, though the building no longer conforms to this layout.

The south elevation, which faces onto the farmyard, has three chimneys through the ridge. At ground floor there are two entrances, two blocked windows, and one wooden casement window with a flat brick arch. The first floor contains three wooden casement windows, two dating from the 20th century. Anchors for several tie bars are visible across this elevation. The attached larder projects southwards at one and a half storeys high, built of red brick in monk bond, with an altered entrance featuring a 19th-century plank and batten door and a 20th-century wooden casement window beneath a segmental arch.

The west elevation is a plain brick gable with wooden casement windows beneath flat brick arches at ground and first floor levels. A projecting lean-to extension sits on the left-hand side.

The north elevation is of brick, except in the western bay where an area of exposed timber studs and historic render survives above the roofline of the lean-to extension, with evidence of a small historic window. The remainder of this elevation has no openings above ground floor, and the brickwork at the eastern end shows signs of successive phases of alteration. At ground floor, the middle bay contains an 18th-century entrance with a shallow arched head and a six-panelled door in a wooden surround. To the east is a straight-headed 20th-century entrance with a glazed upper panel door. Two 18th-century windows flank the central entrance, each with an arched head and twelve lights divided by glazing bars. A third wooden casement window to the east, of later date, has nine lights. The lean-to west extension is walled in brick with an east-side chimney and a corrugated sheet roof.

The east elevation comprises a brick gable wall terminating in a chimney stack. Two attic windows appear to have been blocked. Two first-floor wooden casement windows sit beneath segmental brick arches. At ground floor, the right bay has a small wooden window with a top-light, whilst the left bay has a 20th-century lean-to extension of stretcher-bond brickwork with a corrugated sheet roof. On the south side is the larder extension's east elevation, built of monk-bond brickwork.

Internally, the house reflects its multi-phase vernacular character and retains a high proportion of historic features. Ground floor flooring is brick or pamment tiles, except in the kitchen which has a concrete floor; the first floor has deal boards.

Fireplaces date from the 18th and 19th centuries and are fitted with cast iron grates. Earlier openings likely survive behind the current fixtures, particularly the back-to-back stack in the western bay. One ground floor fireplace was built over in the 1930s when a gas fire with a tiled surround was installed. The large kitchen fire has been built out to accommodate a range cooker, though the original opening is likely to remain beneath, as do a 19th-century bread oven and copper boiler.

The joinery is a mixture of 18th and 19th-century dates, including plain skirtings and architraves, plank and batten doors, shelves and cupboards. The western first-floor room contains an unusual door made of lathes rather than planks.