St Tinney Farmhouse

St Tinney Farmhouse is a two-storey farmhouse, probably dating from the 16th century, with a 17th-century rear wing and subsequent alterations. The building was extended and altered again in the late 19th century, with minor 20th-century changes.

The main structure is built of colourwashed stone rubble, with the gable end of the rear wing slate hung. The roof is covered in bitumenised scantle slate with gabled ends and some old crested clay ridge tiles over the main range. Gable end chimney stacks have 19th-century red brick shafts. A projecting rear lateral stack has a rendered and slate hung shaft. A corrugated iron roof covers a lean-to at the left end.

The building probably originally followed a three-room and through-passage plan, with the lower end to the left since demolished. The hall is heated from a rear lateral stack incorporating an oven. In the 17th century, a relatively large unheated single-room wing was added at right angles behind the passage. Originally there was probably an inner room at the higher right end, but this was demolished and rebuilt in the late 19th century to create a staircase hall and a heated parlour. At the same time, the passage front doorway was blocked and the passage partition moved right into the hall to allow for a small pantry at the front and a second staircase at the back. The 19th-century stack at the lower gable end only heated the chamber above. The single-storey lean-to at the lower end is probably also 19th-century. In the 20th century, the first floor in the rear wing was removed and the room is now open to the roof.

The asymmetrical front elevation is a four-window range. The ground floor has three late 19th-century sashes with vertical glazing bars and horns in brick arch openings; the left-hand window has a wooden lintel. The first floor has four 19th-century slate-hung gabled half-dormers: two to the right have late 19th-century sashes with vertical glazing bars, and two to the left have 20th-century casements.

An original granite door frame to the left, with a chamfered segmented head and jambs with stops, is now blocked and fitted with a small late 19th-century four-pane sash. A late 19th-century doorway to the right has a late 19th-century five-panel door with a glazed top panel in a segmented brick arch opening.

The rear elevation has two 19th-century two-light casements with six panes per light and a projecting rear lateral stack. A semi-circular oven with a slate roof sits in the angle with the rear wing. The rear wing has a large 20th-century window in the gable end wall and a small chamfered granite two-light ground-floor window on the right side with an iron stanchion bar to the left-hand light. The single-storey lean-to at the lower end is separated from the main range by a straight masonry joint.

The interior features a large rear lateral hall fireplace with monolithic granite jambs and lintel bearing a continuous hollow chamfer; the jambs have straight-cut stops. The fireplace has a pitched slate hearth and a cloam oven to the left at the back, stamped with the name FISHLEY. The pantry has joists with bead moulding; these would originally have been over the passage. A straight second staircase is partitioned off at the back of the former passage. The late 19th-century main staircase at the higher end is also straight and has turned balusters and turned newels. The hall and lower end have slate floors.

The roof structure features roughly hewn straight principals lapped and crossed at the apex with collars lapped and pegged to the faces of the principals, a diagonal ridge-piece, and purlins set on the backs of the principals. 19th- or 20th-century bolted soft-wood trusses have been inserted over the higher right-hand end. There is no access to the roof over the rear wing, but the feet of the probably original principals are straight.