Parsonage Farmhouse

Parsonage Farmhouse is a farmhouse, originally a parsonage, dating to the late 17th century, with possible earlier foundations. It was extended in the 18th century and around 1830. The house is constructed of Isle of Wight stone rubble with brick dressings, and has a tiled roof with brick chimneystacks. The original part of the house was built endwise to the road, and features a late 18th century, three-bay “T” wing facing the road, further offices on the opposite side, and a circa 1830 billiard room extension to the “T” wing.

The original section of the house incorporates two 18th or early 19th century mullioned windows on the first floor, and later mullioned windows on the ground floor. A doorcase features a plank door within a moulded wooden architrave. A single-story stone extension with a round-headed doorcase was added in the late 18th century. The “T” wing has three 19th-century casement windows with red brick dressings. The rear elevation, where it joins the original house, displays a brick wall constructed with both English and Flemish bond. The roof incorporates some curved tiles.

The 1830 billiard room extension is of one story, with the initials IJ inscribed on the end wall; it is mainly stone rubble, although the end wall is brick in a Sussex bond, and has a pantiled roof.

The living room features a massive oak bressumer above the fireplace, and a spine beam with a 5-inch chamfer, likely dating to the 16th or early 17th century and possibly forming the core of an earlier building. An 18th-century staircase has splat balusters and a turned newel post. The first floor has three beams, also with 2 to 3 inch chamfers, of late 17th or early 18th century date. The original roof was thatched. The purlins are butted onto the principal rafters, and diagonal tension braces are present. Original floorboards and a plank and muntin partition survive. The 18th-century “T” wing has a roof with chamfered staggered purlins, and includes a half-winder staircase to the attics with a two-panelled door. A cupboard has butterfly hinges. The billiard room features two corner cupboards with serpentine shelves.

Documentary evidence indicates a house existed on this site in 1548. The Edgcombe family, of Mount Edgcombe in Cornwall, owned the property for many years. Richard Edgcombe likely built the earliest part of the house around 1685, possibly incorporating an earlier structure, and Lord George Edgcombe probably extended it during the late 18th century.