Ferry Farmhouse at Tm 278 478

Ferry Farmhouse

A timber-framed farmhouse dating from the 16th century, with substantial additions in the 18th and 19th centuries. The building is rendered with wattle and daub infill and rendered brick beneath a plain tile roof. The original structure probably featured a spine with a baffle-entry three-cell plan and was originally thatched. The building now stands at two storeys with an open courtyard plan created by the later wings.

The entrance front (originally the rear) has a gabled roof with an outshut to the right featuring a catslide roof. The doorway is positioned right of centre. To the right of the doorway is a three-light ground floor casement window dated to the 19th century, and to the left is a four-light casement of the same period. At the extreme left are two two-by-three pane casement windows, and at the far right in the outshut is a single two-by-two pane casement. The first floor has three two-light casement windows to the right and a three-light casement to the left with greater depth and leaded lights.

The left-hand side shows a gable end with one three-light 20th-century casement window to the ground floor and one two-light similar window to the first floor. The 17th-century wing to the left of this has a three-light and a single-light ground floor window, with a two-light 19th-century casement to the first floor. The right-hand side features a lean-to outshut against the gable end, which carries a 20th-century single-flue chimney stack on its outer face. To the right of this are a two-light and a three-light ground floor window with a doorway at the far right, and two 20th-century casement windows to the first floor. The rear elevation (originally the entrance front) has projecting gabled wings of 19th and 18th-century dates respectively, with outshuts running between and abutting the rear of the earlier range. The right-hand gable has 20th-century French windows to the ground floor with a three-light 19th-century casement above. The left-hand wing has a two-light ground floor and three-light first floor casement window. First floor windows to the rear of the earliest range comprise two lights at the left and a single light at the right.

Interior features are considerable. The central ground floor room displays jowled wall posts supporting chamfered ceiling beams with stepped run-out stops and rafters with similar end stops. Timber framing is visible throughout the walls, including ground sills to the external walls and blocked windows to the rear wall. A lengthy chamfered bressumer runs to the hearth, which has been reduced in width by the insertion of a bread oven within the hearth space. A second ground floor room has a similar ceiling, a 20th-century fire surround, and an early 19th-century buffet cupboard with shaped shelves set within an arched niche and finished with a hollow dentilled cornice. The third ground floor room, positioned to the right on the entrance front, has been subdivided by later walling to create a passageway and smaller room, the latter also formed from a portion of the large central room. The outshut to the right-hand gable front shows exposed timber framing appearing to date from the late 17th or early 18th century. The baffle entry, now at the rear and blocked, led into a lobby from which rises the staircase, a single flight with two quarter turns. The first floor in this range has chamfered ceiling beams and a jowled brace to the lower wall visible at the right, together with a cambered tie beam. The 18th-century wing displays a massive chamfered ceiling beam at ground floor level, possibly re-used from elsewhere, and several re-used beams to the first floor.