Ship Inn Farmhouse

A farmhouse, now a house, originally from around the mid-17th century with additions dating to the later 17th century. The building suffered significant damage circa 1900 when the upper end was burnt and demolished, after which a single-storey lean-to was added to the rear right. Few alterations have been made since then.

The structure is built of slatestone rubble and cob with a painted front and a thatched roof with gable ends. The left gable end shares a chimney stack with the adjoining house to the left. The right gable end has a large stack with a rubble shaft and shaped top. The front gable end to the wing has a stack with a brick shaft, probably dating to the 19th century.

The original plan was likely a two-room house, with each room heated from a gable end stack and a passage between them. The larger room occupied the left side, probably the original lower end room. In the later 17th century, a one-room addition was made to the front of the passage and lower end room. This was probably originally unheated and had a small lobby entrance with stair hall at the inner side. A stack was inserted in the front gable end probably in the early 19th century.

The exterior presents an asymmetrical two-storey front. The front wing projects to the left, and the main range extends to the right. The wing has a late 19th-century porch with a hipped roof at the left side, featuring an open front and a 20th-century half-glazed door. A 20th-century two-light casement window is positioned at ground floor to the right and first floor to the left. The front gable end has two inserted 20th-century casement windows, one of which occupies the position of an earlier window, with the original lintel remaining below at ground floor level. The main range to the right has a 20th-century two-light casement at both ground and first floor. The left gable end is concealed by the adjoining house. The right gable end is a blind rubble wall. A three-light casement window is set in the lean-to to the right. At the rear, the main range features a 20th-century stable door and a 20th-century two-light casement with timber lintel; the first floor has a 20th-century two-light casement and a four-pane sash window. The lean-to to the left has a door at the inner side.

Internally, the main range contains two rooms. The doorway into the room to the left, possibly the site of the original passage entrance, has a wooden lintel chamfered with scroll stops. A stud partition formerly stood to the left of this doorway. The room to the right has 19th-century beams and a 20th-century end fireplace with a stone shelf to the right and a spice cupboard with a chamfered wooden lintel. The front window has a splayed reveal.

In the front wing, a 19th-century winder stair with stick balusters and a columnar newel is present. A cupboard beneath the stair has a door with strap hinges. At first floor, the room in the front wing has a chimneybreast with a stone corbel. In the main range, the room to the right has a stepped chimneybreast and a hole in the floor at the right side leading to a recess which may have originally been a smoking chamber. A panelled partition wall dates probably to the late 18th or early 19th century. Roughly hewn beams are visible at the wall-tops, though the roof space is not accessible. A photograph housed in the building shows Ship Inn Farmhouse before the fire which removed the left end.