Fairbourne'S Farm House

Detached farmhouse. It may have origins dating back to the medieval period, but the earliest surviving parts are from around 1680 and the early 18th century. The farmhouse is constructed of red brick, with some sections in Flemish bond and others in header bond. It has hipped plain clay tiled roofs with decorative clay tiles capping the hips, and brick chimney stacks, the westernmost of which has been rendered. The building’s double roof plan sits at right angles to the road and is set some distance from it; the main facade faces south. It is two storeys with an attic, and has four bays. The west end appears to be the older section, with a small brick band course and a visible join with the 18th-century portion. Windows feature cast iron lattice patterns with margins, and 2- and 3-light insertions from the 19th century. A small window is missing in the upper bay of the west end. Windows in bay 1 and those on the first floor have flat, half-brick shoulder arches. The remaining ground floor windows have slightly segmental arches, indicating that they were originally intended to serve narrower windows. A 6-panel flush door is set within a late 19th-century brick and glazed porch with a tiled roof, with remnants of an earlier timber door surround. Dormer windows with lead-flat roofs and slated cheeks, featuring diamond-paned lights, are located between bays 1/2 and 3/4. The west elevation is covered with ivy. Outbuildings are present at this end, some with slated roofs and others with hipped tiled lean-to roofs. A small single-storey bay window with a hipped roof was added to the east gable in the early 20th century. The north elevation includes a slated lean-to with a pitched-roof porch, and two small-pane steel casement windows on the first floor. The interior is largely from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with a curved beam above a blocked fireplace at the east end. The attic has one early partition, and the roof frame features collar trusses with clasped purlins. The site was a boundary of Michelmersh Manor as early as 985 AD and was then known as "feora burnan," hence the name Fairbournes. Fragments within the nearby barn suggest an earlier building of some significance was present on the site.