Disused Farmhouse 250 Metres To East Of West Menheniot Farmhouse

Disused farmhouse dating to the early to mid-17th century, located 250 metres east of West Menheniot Farm. The building is constructed with stone rubble footings and thick cob walls, and is situated on a sloping site with ground rising to the left.

The roof is covered with corrugated iron, which replaces and partly covers original thatch. The roof has a gable end on the left and a hipped end on the right, with a stone rubble end stack on the left.

The house follows a two-room plan with a probable cross passage. The entrance is positioned slightly to the right of centre. The hall-kitchen to the left is heated by the end stack, while the lower room on the right is unheated. The hall-kitchen and passage are floored with 17th-century joists, whilst the lower end is open to the roof and has been used in recent years as a shippon. The original purpose of the lower end is uncertain; there is no drain hole visible in the lower end wall. The ground floor partitions have been removed and the roof structure above the lower end is probably 18th or 19th-century. This room is larger than other unheated service rooms found in similar two-room plan houses in the area, and it is unusual that it remains unfloored. The lower end wall appears to have been partly rebuilt, probably in the 18th or 19th century, and retains the remains of a roughly moulded stone rubble plinth at the base with straight joints where it meets the front and rear walls.

The house was extended to the rear with a service outshut and dairy, dating to around the 18th century, and a circa 19th-century lean-to outshut is attached to the right-hand end wall.

The building is two storeys on the left and single storey on the right, following the slope. The front elevation is asymmetrical with one window. Remains of 19th-century two-light casements survive on the ground and first floors to the left of the entrance, which has a 19th-century plank door. A 17th-century timber two-light mullion window survives on the ground floor to the right, with what is probably a scratch moulded or much eroded ovolo-moulded frame with two mortices for stanchion bars. The left-hand side wall to the front of the end stack has been partly rebuilt.

Interior features include a fireplace in the left-hand end wall with a chamfered and stopped timber lintel, stone rubble jambs and a cloam oven. A 19th-century stair is positioned against the rear wall near the fireplace; the position of the original stair is uncertain. The hall-kitchen and passage are ceiled with 17th-century chamfered and stopped joists which rest on slate pad-stones in the cob walls. The roof structure above the hall-kitchen is partly obscured by a later circa 19th-century boarded ceiling, but at least one original truss survives, probably with a morticed apex and a chamfered cambered collar which is halved, lap-jointed and pegged. The roof structure above the lower end is probably 18th or 19th-century, featuring A-frame trusses halved, lap-jointed and pegged.

At the time of survey in 1987, the house was empty and disused but retained several original 17th-century features and had survived unaltered and unspoilt. Closer inspection of the roof should be made before any structural work is started. The house is set in a particularly picturesque setting and possesses an interesting and unusual plan.