Castle Hill Farmhouse

Farmhouse. It likely originated in the mid- to late 17th century and has been enlarged and modernized through several phases, most notably in the 18th and 19th centuries. The main block is timber-framed and clad with weatherboarding; the front of the older part is underbuilt with painted brick, and the end wall is of late 17th/early 18th century English bond brick. Rear blocks and a mid-19th century parlour block are of red brick, with some upper parts weatherboarded. Brick stacks and chimneyshafts rise from the roof, which is tiled.

The farmhouse is set back from the road and faces east. The main block follows a three-room plan. A parlour with a projecting gable-end stack is at the south end. A central passage leads from the front doorway to the 19th-century rear block containing the main staircase. To the north of the passage is a dining room (now a study), and a large kitchen occupies the north end. An axial stack between the kitchen and dining room serves back-to-back fireplaces. Rear blocks extend behind each end; the left one housing the main stair and a room with a gable-end stack, while the right one is a wash house/utility room. Lean-to outshots connect the two rear blocks and contain a corridor and stair. A 19th-century parlour block runs parallel to the main block to the rear of the left rear block and projects north, featuring a stack at its south end. The current layout is of the 19th century. The dining room and passage section of the main block date back to the 17th century, while the rest has been rebuilt or newly constructed since. The main block’s rear outshot appears to be part of the 18th-century alterations.

The main block and the northern rear block room have attics and are two storeys high, with the northern rear block room open to the roof.

The front facade has a regular, though not symmetrical, appearance with five mid-19th century casement windows, each with glazing bars. The front doorway, slightly left of centre, has a mid-19th century part-glazed four-panel door behind a contemporary gabled porch clad with diagonal planks and wavy bargeboards. The main roof is gable-ended to the left and half-hipped to the right, with four gabled dormer windows.

Inside, original 17th-century features are visible in the passage and the dining room/study. The room contains a chamfered crossbeam with run-out stops, and a large kitchen fireplace with a chamfered oak lintel. A bedchamber above also has chamfered crossbeams which are tie beams of a three-bay clasped purlin roof. The carpentry in the rest of the main block is of noticeably more slender scantling. Exposed beams are narrowly chamfered, and the roof has clasped side purlins throughout. Good quality 18th- and 19th-century joinery is present throughout the house.