Penrose Farmhouse

The farmhouse probably dates to the 17th century, with significant enlargement occurring around the late 17th or early 18th century. It is constructed of slate rubble, with the left-hand portion of the front roughcast. The roof is slate, half-hipped, with roughcast brick stacks at the ends. The lower gable-ended right-hand wing has a rag-slate roof and a brick gable end stack. A hipped roof covers the stair tower at the rear, featuring red clay ridge tiles.

The original layout comprised a long right-hand room, likely from the 17th century, which was rebuilt or heavily remodelled and heightened in the late 17th or early 18th century. The rebuilt left-hand section features two rooms at the front – a parlour to the left and a large, heated entrance hall to the right, with a stair tower at the back and a dairy in an integral outshut behind the parlour. The earlier wing to the right served as the kitchen; its right-hand fireplace, originally with an adjoining oven, was recently demolished. An outshut behind the earlier kitchen wing was also being demolished in 1987.

The front facade presents a 3:2 window arrangement. The symmetrical three-window range on the left is the later 17th or early 18th century addition, featuring a roughcast finish and late 20th-century windows with top opening lights in original openings. A central doorway incorporates a late 20th-century glazed door within a conservatory. The two-window range to the right has a lower roofline and an exposed stone front with an asymmetrical arrangement of late 20th-century windows and a late 20th-century door to the left. The rear elevation is largely unaltered, exhibiting a large hipped-roof stair tower centrally, with a 19th-century sash window with margin panes. An integral outshut is located to the right, alongside a 20th-century casement window. To the left of the stair tower, an outshut was being demolished in 1987, while the far left-hand end retains the demolished remains of a projecting oven.

Inside, the entrance hall has fielded 2-panel doors, a moulded dado rail, and an early 18th-century chimney-piece with a moulded architrave and cornice. The stair tower has a fine early 18th-century open-well staircase with a moulded string, heavy turned balusters, and a moulded handrail that ramps up to square newels. The stairwell ceiling has a heavy moulded plaster cornice. The first floor contains fielded 2-panel doors. The parlour retains fragments of moulded plaster cornice and a dado rail with a 20th-century fireplace. The right-hand room in the earlier wing displays closely spaced, roughly chamfered cross-beams with run-out stops. A timber fireplace lintel, reused as a window lintel and featuring a cyma moulding with hollow step stops, was removed during recent alterations.