Venn Farmhouse

Venn Farmhouse is a farmhouse, now residential, dating from circa the mid-17th century with significant additions and alterations spanning the 18th and 19th centuries, and some 20th-century modifications. It is built of granite and slatestone rubble with a slate roof featuring ridge tiles and gable ends. The gable end stacks have rendered shafts, with the left stack featuring a shaped top.

The original house was planned as a two-room structure with the lower end room to the right serving as a heated hall or kitchen, accessed via a lobby entrance, and the parlour at the left end, also heated from a gable end stack. Probably during the 19th century, the parlour was reduced in size and a straight stair was inserted along its right side, with the entrance now leading directly to the stair. A single-storey unheated outshut was added to the rear centre, possibly predating the stair insertion, entered from a door at the rear of the hall or kitchen. Later in the 19th century, a two-storey shippon and stable was added to the lower right end, with the upper storey now incorporated into the house. A small barn was attached to the upper left end in the 19th century, originally adjacent to the house, and later joined to it by an infill building containing a pigeon loft.

The exterior presents a long range with the original house showing a two-storey asymmetrical two-window front; all windows are 20th-century casements. The parlour to the left has a projecting bay with a shallow porch set into the angle to the right. The parlour bay has a ground-floor window with a raking dormer above. The porch features a half-glazed 20th-century door, open-fronted with a pitched roof. The lower end to the right has a three-light window at ground floor and a two-light window at first floor. At the left end, the barn displays three doors at ground floor with granite lintels, the central one blocked, and a first-floor loading door with a pitched hood and small opening to the right. The infill building to the right has doors at ground floor and a narrow window opening above with four square pigeon holes. The two-storey shippon and stable at the lower end has two small windows at first floor, a small window and double doors with a timber lintel at ground floor to the left, a single stable door to the right, and a 20th-century greenhouse attached to the front right. A ventilation slit runs to the right. The shippon is built into the bank at the rear. The right end was rebuilt in the 20th century with an upper-level window. At the rear, the single-storey outshut has a 20th-century window and door. To the left, the shippon and stable features an external stone stair leading to a loft door, a small 20th-century window at first floor to the right. The barn to the right has an external stone stair accessing loft doors to left and right, with a lower window opening off-centre to the right and a granite lintel. This barn is partially built into the bank at the rear.

The interior at ground floor features slate paving throughout. The hall or kitchen to the right contains 19th-century beams, an end fireplace to the right with a timber lintel and oven to the rear; the fireplace has been reduced in size. The former stair location is at the rear right of the room. One roughly chamfered beam remains, and a 19th-century wooden partition divides the space from the straight stair to the left. The parlour has a fireplace rebuilt in the 20th century with shallow shelves to the left and a recess in the rear wall. At first floor, the feet of the principal rafters are boxed.