Napheane Farmhouse

Napheane Farmhouse

This farmhouse possibly dates from the 17th century but was altered to its present configuration in 1762, with partial rebuilding in 1994. The interior was modified in 1931 and subsequently.

The building is constructed of granite rubblestone with granite quoins and dressings. The roof is covered with twentieth-century slate. The south and east elevations and the roof were rebuilt in 1994 and are faced with concrete blocks and granite. The farmhouse is rectangular in plan with a two-room, cross-passage layout, though the cross passage was widened in 1931 to create a stair hall. There are two single-storey extensions to the north and a twenty-first-century extension to the east.

The principal elevation to the south is almost symmetrical, comprising three window bays and a central doorway flanked by windows. The windows are twentieth-century timber horizontal-sliding sashes, each leaf having six panes, which are smaller on the ground floor. The pitched roof is laid with natural slate. There is a substantial end stack with a stone dripcourse and tapered top to the west, and a smaller rebuilt stack to the east. The west elevation is blind and shows evidence of where the rebuilt south elevation has been tied into the gable end. The two single-storey extensions on the north elevation have a recessed porch between them with a vertical sash-window above. The annexe extension to the east is of modern construction, faced in granite rubble.

The main access is through a recessed porch on the north elevation. An inner hallway leads left to a modern utility room with a slate flag floor. The doorway to the staircase hall has a chamfered granite frame; the lintel is faintly carved 'RWR'. The staircase hall has matchboard partition walls to east and west, with a twentieth-century straight staircase on the east side featuring a matchboarded spandrel framing, plain balustrade, and turned newels. The front door is to the south.

To the right of the staircase hall is the former kitchen, now a dining room, which has a large granite inglenook fireplace on the west wall. On the right-hand side of the fireplace is a granite-rubble domed bread oven, and on the left is a small square recess, said to be for storing salt and flour. The timber fireplace lintel is twentieth-century. On the north side of the dining room (within the former dairy) is a modern kitchen with a matchboarded ceiling. Beyond the staircase is the former parlour, now lounge, which has chamfered granite fireplaces on the north and east walls. That to the north is blocked; that to the east was rebuilt in 1994 and is topped by a piece of worked granite of unknown origin or purpose. A twenty-first-century door to the east opens to the annexe, created in 2004, which has no historic features of note.

The first floor contains two bedrooms within the historic core. The western room has a small alcove on the west wall, and a shelf formed by the historic wall plate survives on the bedroom and landing as evidence that the eaves have been raised. The second bedroom has two pieces of worked granite embedded in the east wall, added when the wall was rebuilt in 1994. To the east is a first-floor extension constructed in 2008 with no historic features of note.

Ground-floor ceilings to the northern extensions are matchboard; those to the staircase hall, dining room and lounge are of softwood joists with exposed floorboards. Door openings are short and fitted with twentieth-century pitch-pine doors with twentieth-century architraves; external doors are modern and half-glazed. Walls are plastered and painted unless stated, and all flooring is twentieth-century or later.