Rugbourne Farmhouse And Attached Garden Wall And Gate Piers

Rugbourne Farmhouse, dating from the late 17th century, is constructed from squared and coursed rubble with flush freestone quoins, stone openings, copings, and a double Roman tile roof. The southeast front features three storeys and five windows. The ground floor windows are two-light ovolo mullions with 19th-century casements, while the first floor has three central cross mullions flanked by two-light ovolo mullions at either end. The upper floor has two-light ovolo mullions, all of which are blocked. There is a segmental-headed and keyed central doorway with a moulded architrave and a 19th-century plank door, along with a 19th-century ironwork porch. Continuous drip moulds are present at the first and second floor levels. The double-span roof has end stone stacks to the southeast and reconstituted stone stacks at the rear. The side walls feature keyed oculi for the loft space and several large window openings with keyed heads and straight cornices; some of these are blocked, while others have six-pane sashes.

Inside, the left-hand room on the ground floor has a contemporary compartmented plaster ceiling consisting of four panels with central roundels and corner foliage sprays. The garden forecourt is enclosed by rubble walls topped with dressed stone copings, and it includes plain gate piers that are square in plan with moulded caps. Notably, William Smith, known as the 'Father of British Geology' and Surveyor to the Somerset Coal Canal Company, lodged here from 1792 to 1795.