Higher Coombe Farmhouse

Higher Coombe Farmhouse is a detached farmhouse dating to the mid-17th century, with some alterations in the 19th century, particularly to the first-floor windows. The building is constructed of coursed rubble-stone walls with ashlar stone quoins in a long-and-short work pattern. It has thatched roofs, hipped at the ends and at the rear wing. A brick stack is located on the ridge, to the right of the centre, dating to the 18th century. A 17th-century stone stack is on the north wall of the rear wing, featuring steep gable-coping, cyma-moulded kneelers, and an original stone chimney from the gable apex with a moulded cornice.

The farmhouse was originally built as a T-shaped plan, with a lobby entrance to the front range. It has two storeys and four windows on the ground floor. These are mullioned windows, featuring 3-light, 4-light, and 4-light ovolo-moulded stone mullions with moulded framing carried onto ashlar wall blocks. Each window has a separate label returned above. The windows contain a mix of leaded rectangular lights and iron casements. The first floor has three wood-framed iron casements with leading at the centre and right-hand end. The front door, positioned to the right of the centre, has moulded stone jambs, stopped, plain square imposts, and a 4-centred arch within a square head, with a label over. The plank door has heavy battens, dating to the 17th/18th century. A porch projecting to the right was built in the early 19th century, constructed of flint rubble with dressed stone quoins and jambs, and a 4-centred head with a separate label. It has stone gable-coping with kneelers and a gabled slate roof. The rear wing has ovolo-moulded stone mullions in the south and east walls, mostly with fixed leading. Ashlar stone quoins are present on the south-facing corner of this wing, while the north side has squared rubble quoins. A Dairy and Cheese Room, dating to the mid to late 19th century, is located in the north-east angle of the house and is constructed of rubble-stone with brick quoins and dressings, with a pentice slate roof, a 2-light casement and a loft door above.

The interior features mid-chamfered ceiling-beams with roughly tongued stops and run-out stops. There are back-to-back fireplaces in the lobby, with little evidence exposed, and a bread oven door in the south room that has been moved during a recent alteration. The staircase is not original. Several 18th-century fielded-panel doors are present. The roof construction in the rear wing consists of 2-hewn principals with collar-beams halved and double face-pegged, along with two sets of overlapping and pegged through-purlins.