The Old Farmhouse And The Cottage

THE OLD FARMHOUSE AND THE COTTAGE

A farmhouse, now divided into two houses. The building probably dates to the 16th or early 17th century but was substantially remodelled during the 1960s and 1970s.

The exterior is constructed of rendered stone rubble and cob with an asbestos slate roof. The roof has a hipped lower end on the left side and a gabled higher end on the right. The front elevation is a regular two-storey composition of four windows. The ground floor features a 20th-century gabled porch to the left, a 20th-century lean-to extension near the centre in front of the front lateral chimney stack, and a hall bay to the right of centre. This hall bay is a gabled two-storey projection with a 20th-century casement window below a 17th-century chamfered timber lintel with run-out stops and a slate drip stone above. To the right are a part-glazed 20th-century door and casement window. The first floor has two 20th-century casement windows to the left of the front lateral chimney stack, a 20th-century casement in the gabled hall bay, and a 20th-century casement to the right. The rear elevation has a stair projection at the higher side of the hall with a 19th-century casement and 20th-century extensions.

The original plan was probably three rooms with a through passage. A rendered stone rubble and cob front lateral hall chimney stack heated the lower end originally; a rear lateral chimney stack, now truncated and incorporated in the rear outshut, served the lower end. The inner room was heated by a truncated projecting stone rubble chimney stack on the right-hand gable end. A service room with a cloam oven was added in an outshut to the rear of the lower side of the hall. Later, the fireplace to the lower hipped end was moved and the inner room fireplace arrangement altered. The building is now divided into two houses approximately towards the lower side of the hall.

The house on the left comprises a two-room plan with the lower end, through passage, and a small room formed from part of the hall, with further outshut extensions to the rear. The house on the right comprises the larger part of the hall heated by the front lateral stack, the hall bay, the inner room, and a turreted stair projection to the rear with an entrance between the hall and inner room. A large hall with a projecting hall bay on the front is positioned to the right of the front lateral chimney stack. A turreted stair to the rear, probably originally leading to a solar above the inner room, is positioned at the higher side of the hall.

Interior alterations from the 1960s and 1970s include replacement of ceiling beams and the lintel to the hall fireplace, and blocking of the fireplace to the rear lateral stack at the lower end. A heavy cross beam in the hall, probably reset in the partition between the two houses, has been turned on its side and features heavy chamfering, run-out stops, and probably mortice holes for muntins of a plank and muntin screen. The turreted stair projection contains a timber stair with wide treads.

The house on the right contains four roof trusses positioned above the inner room and higher side of the hall with collars and principals, some of which have been partly renewed. The second truss dates to circa the late 17th century and features chamfered principals and a chamfered, slightly cambered collar partly halved, lapped and pegged onto the face of the principal. Possible evidence exists of a barrel-vaulted ceiling below, probably for a solar above the inner room. The fourth truss appears to be reused, with some dark staining. The truss above the hall bay has a 17th-century dovetailed notched lapped joint. The roof timbers of the left-hand house were not inspected.