Kern

Kern Farmhouse is a building of group value, originally a farmhouse, later incorporating a cottage or brewhouse. The right-hand section of the farmhouse dates to the late 16th or early 17th century and was altered in the early 18th century, with restoration carried out in 1985. A late 17th-century cottage is linked by a single-storey wooden extension.

The main farmhouse is constructed of stone rubble, with some brick dressings. It has a tiled roof, with a square brick chimney stack at the right-hand end and a clustered chimney stack positioned off-centre. The building is two storeys and attics, with a 3-window front and a 5-window front to the rear. The gable ends have stone coping with kneelers. Three modern hipped dormers with casement windows provide attic lighting. The first floor retains triple casement windows in original stone and brick surrounds. A blocked original window surround also remains on the first floor. The ground floor has a 3-light mullion window with a keystone to the left, a modern window within a blocked-in doorcase, an early to mid-19th-century 16-pane sash with a cambered brick head, and two mid-19th-century sashes, replacing a stone early 18th-century window surround with an obtusely pointed arch behind. A modern stone gabled porch has been added. A deep plinth is visible on the right-hand side, and a dripmoulding links two ground-floor windows on the right. On the rear elevation, a first-floor triple mullioned window and a blocked double mullion are visible on the ground floor, and other windows are casements, some with brick dressings. The interior contains a late 16th or early 17th-century stone fireplace in the parlour, featuring a 4-centred arch with a flower on one spandrel and a heart on the other. It also features early 18th-century fielded panelling with a furniture rail. An early 18th-century staircase is present. The roof displays principal rafters and staggered purlins, with stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops. Other details include a rush light mark.

Attached by a stone single-storey link block is a former separate dwelling or brewhouse, dating to the late 17th century and altered in the late 20th century. It is built of Isle of Wight stone rubble with a renewed tiled roof and has one and a half storeys with attics and three windows. Two modern hipped dormers are present. The ground floor has two modern casement windows with older brick surrounds. Internally, there's an open fireplace with a wooden bressumer and a bread oven, along with ceiling beams featuring lamb's tongue stops. Some partition walls retain herringbone brick infill, and there is an early 18th-century door.

The manor was held by the King in 1086 and previously by King Harold before the Norman invasion. Kern's proximity to the demolished mansion of Knighton Gorges in Newchurch parish and its fine quality early 18th-century panelling suggest it may have held a higher status than a simple farmhouse, perhaps serving as a dower house to Knighton Gorges.