Debach House

Debach House

Farmhouse dating to the early 17th century with a mid-19th century addition. The building is timber-framed with colourwashed render and brick skin in Flemish bond, topped with a slate and plain tiled roof. It stands two storeys with attics, arranged on a double pile plan.

The yard front features a later two-storey brick outshut that masks almost all of the 16th-century range. At ground floor level, this earlier section contains a stable door, flanked by 4-light windows. A similar loft window sits below the eaves on the right. At the left below the ridge stands a 20th-century brick chimney stack, while the ridge of the 17th-century range behind carries a massive chimney stack of rectangular base supporting four octagonal shafts with moulded bases and caps (the caps largely replaced in the 20th century).

The left-hand side shows 19th-century brick walling to both gable ends and the outshut at right. The recessed outshut has a 3-light first-floor casement. The right-hand gable features a pair of French windows at ground floor with 2-light casement windows on either side. Above are a 3-light 20th-century first-floor casement and a 2-light attic casement. The left gable end contains a 19th-century lean-to conservatory at ground floor with a glazed door connecting to the house.

The right-hand side includes a lean-to on the left with four-light 19th-century ground-floor casements and a 2-light first-floor window plus a 4-light mezzanine casement. The gable end of the 17th-century range, rebuilt in 19th-century brick, has a half-glazed door, 2-light 20th-century casements at left on both ground and first floors, and a 2-light attic window at first-floor right. The 19th-century wing has 2-light casements to ground and first floor.

The rear elevation is arranged in three nearly symmetrical bays. The right bay at ground floor incorporates a large 20th-century bay window with hipped roof, flanked by pairs of French windows and casements. The central ground-floor bay has a further pair of French windows, with a 3-by-4 sash window to the left. The first floor contains three sash windows of 3-by-4 panes with splayed heads. Two gable chimney stacks pierce the roof.

The outshut interior contains the present kitchen, formerly comprising a tack room, dairy, and pantry. The dairy retains its original 19th-century shutters and ceiling hooks designed to support them. In the 17th-century range, one ground-floor room displays close studding to the walls, a chamfered ceiling beam with run-out stops, and a blocked window originally of three lights with ovolo-moulded mullions. The dining room features further close-studded walling and an ovolo-moulded ceiling beam. It contains four rectangular panels of decorative plasterwork with central bosses surrounded by four lilies and fleurs de lys to the corners, with cyma-moulded borders. The cross axial raised dividing panel carries a central rose to each half and fleurs de lys to each end. The first-floor room above the dining room is similar, with the same ceiling design but with fern leaves rather than lilies surrounding the central boss in each panel. This room also contains two blocked windows and a chimney with a 4-centred hearth. A winder staircase rises from the lobby entry and continues to the attic.