Linkhorns Farmhouse

Linkhorns Farmhouse is a former farmhouse of late medieval date, probably early 16th century, with late 16th- and early 17th-century improvements. It was modernised and enlarged around 1986. The building is timber-framed on coursed sandstone footings, with framing exposed at ground-floor level and hung with peg-tile above. Brick stacks include a parlour stack on a coursed sandstone base, with brick chimneyshafts. The roof is covered in peg-tiles.

The house follows an L-plan, with the main block facing south and a parlour to the right (east) featuring a large projecting gable-end stack. A three-room crosswing extends to the left. A service room at the front, unheated, has its chamber above jettied forward. Behind it lies the hall, with a circa 1986 extension at the rear end and an axial stack between the two.

The earliest part comprises the front two-room section of the crosswing, built as a late medieval two-cell open hall house. The service room was originally divided into two smaller rooms with an end-jettied chamber and stair in its present position. The one-bay hall was open to the roof, heated by an open hearth fire. A third medieval room may have existed but was possibly demolished; the circa 1986 extension obscures any evidence. A parlour was added off the service end in the late 16th or early 17th century, and the hall was floored over around the same time. The hall stack is of uncertain date.

The building rises two storeys with attics in the roofspace, and has secondary lean-to outshots at the rear of the parlour. The front elevation displays an irregular four-window arrangement of various 20th-century casements, some without glazing bars and others with leaded glass in rectangular or diamond panes. A roughly central doorway leads directly into the parlour and contains a 19th-century plank door with coverstrips, set behind a 20th-century gabled porch. The service end has a jetty to the left on exposed joists. The left (west) end wall has an irregular four-window front of 20th-century casements without glazing bars. The front southern two-bay section shows exposed original framing at ground-floor level in the same style as the front end. The main roof is gable-ended to the right and hipped to the left, while the crosswing roof is slightly taller than the parlour roof.

Inside, the early framed structure is well-preserved. The late medieval two-cell section retains original framed walls including crosswalls and large scantling axial joists in the service room. Mortises along the soffit of the centre joists indicate the room was originally divided into two. The one-bay roof over the hall features plain crown post construction between closed trusses. The A-frame common rafter trusses have lap-jointed collars; the collar purlin and plastered end walls are heavily smoke-blackened from the original open hearth fire. The crown purlin over the service end has been cut to accommodate a late 16th- or early 17th-century hip built with the parlour roof. The hall crossbeam is late 16th- or early 17th-century, chamfered with canted step stops; the fireplace has been rebuilt. The late 16th- or early 17th-century parlour features a good intersecting beam four-panel ceiling, with beams and joists chamfered with step stops. A large brick fireplace has an oak-framed front with chamfered surround, unusual but probably of late 16th- or early 17th-century date.

Linkhorns is an attractive and well-preserved farmhouse. Late medieval single-bay halls are uncommon, and if this was only a two-cell house, it represents a very rare survival.