Sapley Farmhouse

Sapley Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating from around the mid-17th century, with extensions and alterations added circa the late 18th or early 19th century and further changes in the 19th century. The original timber frame has been largely replaced with brick and flint, with a roughcast finish to the front, and a Flemish bond brick wing. The roof is covered in clay plain tiles with gabled ends, and features brick axial and gable-end stacks.

The farmhouse has a 4-room plan, with a lobby entrance situated in front of an axial stack which contains back-to-back fireplaces. These fireplaces heat the parlour located at the right-hand (south) end, and the hall positioned centrally. A kitchen is located at the left-hand (north) end with a gable-end stack, with an unheated room between the hall and kitchen. A short brick wing was added to the rear of the right-hand end in the late 18th or early 19th century, along with what may have been a stair tower in the angle, which was rebuilt in the 19th century when the wall-framing of the main range was replaced.

The west front has an asymmetrical 4-window arrangement and features 20th-century 2 and 3-light casement windows with glazing bars. A doorway is located to the right of centre, with a flush-panel door and a later 19th-century gabled open timber porch. A second doorway to the left of centre has a glazed door with side lights. The rear (east) elevation has red brickwork with bands of flint, a gable-ended brick wing on the left, and a gabled flint and brick former stair tower in the angle; also featuring 20th-century casement windows.

The interior was in the process of restoration at the time of inspection. The right-hand room (parlour) has a 17th-century brick fireplace with a chamfered cambered arch, and an early 18th-century corner cupboard with panelled arch doors and a keyblock. The centre-right room (hall) has a chamfered axial beam with cyma stops and a brick fireplace with a curved back and a renewed bressumer. The unheated centre room features a chamfered axial beam with straight cut stops and partly removed unchamfered joists. The left-hand room (kitchen) has a chamfered axial beam with hollow step stops, large unchamfered joists and a large fireplace with a chamfered bressumer with a cyma stop at one end. The first floor also has chamfered axial beams with cyma stops, and a 17th-century arched brick fireplace. The building contains timber-framed cross walls. The roof structure is a 4-bay, plus chimney bay, queen-post roof with clasped purlins and common-rafter couples. Some original plank doors remain.