West Roose Farmhouse

Farmhouse. Probably late 16th or early 17th century, with an 18th century kitchen and dairy at rear and an early to mid 19th century parlour at the lower right end.

The main structure is built of whitewashed stone rubble; the left hand end wall and the rear walls of the kitchen and lower end parlour are rendered. The roof is rag slate with gabled ends and red clay ridge tiles, with a catslide roof over the rear outshot. A rendered shaft connects to the front lateral stack and right hand gable end stack. The very large lower gable end stack to the rear kitchen wing features set-offs and a semi-circular oven with a slate roof.

The original plan probably consisted of 2 rooms with a central through passage. The hall to the left has a front lateral stack, and a 2-storey porch sits at the front of the passage entrance. In the 18th century, a kitchen was added in a parallel 1-room plan range behind the lower end of the hall and passage, with a stack and oven in its lower right gable end. A dairy was also added in the 18th century as an outshot behind the hall, in the angle with the kitchen. In the early to mid 19th century, a parlour was built on the lower right side of the passage, slightly set forward of the main range. This may have replaced an existing lower room, which alternatively might have been demolished when the kitchen was added at the back. The lower end could originally have been an unheated service room, the original kitchen, or an outbuilding such as a shippon.

The building is 2 storeys with an asymmetrical 4-window range. The right hand lower end is slightly advanced with a lower roof line. It has a 19th century 16-pane sash with horns on the ground floor and a smaller 19th century 4-pane sash above. To the left, the higher end features a 17th century chamfered 3-light window with a hood mould, though the mullions have been removed, the cill lowered, and a 19th century 2-light 16-pane casement inserted. A 19th century 4-pane sash sits above. To the right of the higher end is a small fixed-light window of 6 panes built through the back of the lateral fireplace; this section of wall appears to have been rebuilt and the lateral stack may have originally projected. The gabled 2-storey porch to the right of centre has a 19th century 16-pane sash on the first floor and a granite 4-centre arch doorway below with deep chamfer and step stops. The outer door to the porch is a boarded half door with a shaped top, and there is an early 19th century 4-panel inner door. Inside the porch to the left is a slate topped seat.

The interior is largely the result of 19th century modernisation and has mostly 19th century joinery. However, there is a large late 16th to early 17th century lateral hall fireplace with granite monolithic jambs and granite corbels with curved ends supporting a very large slate lintel on edge. The fireplace has been filled with a 20th century granite fireplace and a window has been inserted through the back to the left. A late 19th century staircase is partitioned off in the lower rear corner of the hall and has chamfered square newels. The lower right hand room is the parlour and has an early to mid 19th century marble chimneypiece with round-headed recesses to either side of the chimney breast. The kitchen at the back has a blocked fireplace containing a brick oven.

The roof over the main range (hall and passage) has 20th century soft-wood bolted trusses. The other parts of the roof have not been inspected. On the lower side of the passage, the partition is a solid wall rising up to the roof apex; on the higher side of the passage, the partition is a solid wall on the ground floor only with a stud partition above.