Church Farmhouse

HIGH LITTLETON

1065/0/10003 CHURCH HILL 16-JUN-04 Church Farmhouse

GV II House; probably the remaining wing of a larger house. Circa late C17; remodelled C18. Limestone rubble with freestone dressings. Welsh slate steeply-pitched roof with stone-coped gable ends. Stone gable-end stack with short ashlar shaft with cap and string course. PLAN: Rectangular on plan with room at south end separated from the rest of the house by a partition wall apparently without a connecting doorway, but with an external doorway at the front; the centre bay is divided axially into front and back rooms and there is an integral single-storey outshut at the north end, probably the result of partitial demolition and possibly containing unheated service rooms. Thought to be the remaining wing of a larger house, the rest of which is no longer extant. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. 4-bay west front with 2-light cyma-moulded stone mullion window frames without hoodmoulds, the first floor with small gables over; to left and right blocked stone segmental arch doorways with small keystones; left hand bay is in integral lean-to outshut with similar 2-light stone mullion window. Similar windows and one later wooden casement at rear. INTERIOR observed from first floor west front window; tenoned-purlin roof structure. NOTE: Church Farmhouse is reputedly the surviving wing of the seat of the Hodges family, who were the principal landowners in the area and had coal mining interests on the estate.