Glen Mead

Glen Mead is a farmhouse, now a private house, dating to around the mid-17th century. It was partly remodelled in the late 18th century and extended in the mid-19th century. The construction is of stone rubble with dressed granite quoins and arches to the ground floor openings. The roof is of rag slate with gable ends and stone rubble gable end stacks.

The original plan is uncertain, but the house may have initially comprised two rooms and a through passage. It’s possible that the larger hall kitchen was on the left, heated by an end stack, and a smaller, possibly unheated parlour on the right. In the late 18th century, it may have been extended to form a double-depth plan, although the straight joints on the gable ends are tentative. The rear wall of the original range may have been replaced with a thinner partition wall, which was remodelled in the mid to late 20th century. Alternatively, the house may have always been of a double-depth plan. Around the late 18th century, the front of the house was remodelled and the front wall possibly partly rebuilt. In the mid-19th century, a single-room service range was added to the rear right, including a kitchen fireplace with a clom oven heated by a rear lateral stack.

The property presents a nearly symmetrical three-window front, likely partly refaced in the late 18th century. The entrance is located slightly right of centre, featuring an early 20th-century part-glazed door and an open stone rubble porch with a slate top. The ground floor window openings have dressed granite segmental arches with keystones; a 19th-century tripartite sash window is on the left, and a late 19th-century 16-pane sash window on the right. The first floor contains three 16-pane early 19th-century hornless sash windows.

Inside, partitions were removed between the two front rooms. The right-hand room has an unmoulded granite lintel above the fireplace. The left-hand hall kitchen features chamfered ceiling beams with straight cut stops, and a timber lintel over the large fireplace, which is also chamfered with a hollow straight cut stop on the right side; the left side has been truncated and the wall rebuilt. A 19th-century staircase with a turned newel and stick balusters is located to the rear of the right-hand room. The kitchen on the rear right has an unmoulded timber lintel over the fireplace and a clom oven.

The first floor of the main range has not been inspected.

The farmhouse is situated in the village of Helstone. Historically, the land associated with the farm was to the north and included a substantial part of the medieval deer park, traces of whose earth banks remain.