Little Toller Farmhouse

Little Toller Farmhouse is a manor farmhouse dating to the mid-16th century, originally built for John Samways of Winterborne St Martin. A 19th-century wing was added to the south-west corner. The farmhouse is constructed of limestone ashlar walls with Ham Stone dressings, with shallow-coursed rubble-stone at the left-hand end and within the 19th-century wing. The roof is tiled with gables and stone copings. There are brick and stone stacks—the stone stack at the right-hand gable is from the 17th century. A projecting stack sits centrally on the front wall, and two chimneys rise from the gable copings on either side of the apex, each with octagonal cappings. A barley-sugar finial sits at the gable apex, featuring a carved monkey holding a hammer. An octagonal buttress at the right-hand end also has a barley-sugar finial terminating in a griffin.

The farmhouse is two storeys and has attics, and originally had 4 windows. Ground floor openings include a 19th-century sash window with a low cill to the left of the front stack, and a pair of coupled 19th-century sashes, also with a low cill, to the right of the front door. This door has straight-chamfered jambs and is a flush-panelled design with four glazed lights, dating to the 19th century. A moulded stone porch canopy with a frieze, cornice, and octagonal stone shafts with bases and capitals (possibly from the 18th century) fronts the door. An unusual label sits above the ground floor openings. The first floor windows consist of one 2-light and two 4-light mullioned windows with 4-centred heads from the 16th century, now fitted with cast-iron casements with glazing-bars; a 2-light 19th-century casement is at the far left end.

At the rear of the house, the walling combines flint and stone. A stair-tower projects from the east gable-end, with a 16th-century buttress at the north-east corner. A projecting stair-well on the rear wall has a plinth moulding that runs around it. The interior includes a probable garderobe tower at the east end, now used as cupboards on both levels. The rear staircase tower now contains stairs from the early 20th century, and the ground floor features flagstones. The house was extensively re-fashioned in the 19th century. The roof was largely rebuilt in the 1960s, but original 16th-century principal rafters remain, double-morticed to accommodate wagon-bracing. The roof now has a rebuilt wagon-roof construction, with original bracing. An early 19th-century service range, including the wing at the south-west corner, is also incorporated into the property.