Knowle House

House. Probably built in the first half of the 17th century, with an early 18th-century addition, and 19th and early 20th-century alterations. The house is constructed of rubble stone with dressed quoins and pebble-dash render, and has an asbestos tile roof (previously thatched) with ridge tiles. A section has Welsh slate and corrugated iron, and there are brick chimneys. Originally a one-and-a-half-story, two-bay building with an end stack, a third bay was added to the right in the early 18th century, set at an angle. A rear outshut was added to the two right bays, likely in the late 19th century, and the roof was raised in the early 20th century. The entrance, located between the left bays, features a six-panel door with the top two panels glazed, topped by an early 20th-century bracketed gabled hood with cusped bargeboards, a spiked finial, Welsh slates, and ridge tiles. The windows are wood-framed mullioned casements with horizontal glazing bars, consisting of two lights on the left, three lights on the right of the door, four lights to the right, and three of three lights above. There are short chimneys to the ends and between the right-hand bays (at the original right end).

Inside, the ground floor of the central bay has a stone-flag floor, an inglenook fireplace with a quoined surround, a chamfered bressumer, and a former bread-oven. A small niche is present in the front wall. A finely-moulded spine-beam with a double roll-moulding and fillet and run-out stops is also present. The left bay has a later fireplace, a large-scantling chamfered spine-beam, original joists, and a window seat. The right bay has a fireplace with a timber bressumer and a bread-oven, a chamfered spine-beam, and an 18th-century corner cupboard with a moulded shelf and H-hinges to raised-and-fielded panelled doors. On the first floor, the original end wall, between the right bays, has a small original wooden window of two lights with cyma-moulded jambs, diagonally-set bar, and a strap-hinged door formed from two wide planks. Wide floorboards are present, with those in the right bay having been re-located, including to a crude loft. A partition wall between the left bays extends up to the tie-beam with plank and muntin construction, and above it, timber framing with wattle and daub infill. The roof, originally thatched and half-hipped at the left end, survives best in the central bay, retaining reused smoke-blackened timbers, a low collar, large-scantling principal rafters, clasped purlins, a low-set collar, and pegged coupled rafters (no ridge-piece), as well as straight wind-braces and some laths for thatch. A chamfered spine-beam with a stepped cyma stop is found in the left bay. The building once operated as a beer-house, known as the Old Calley Arms, in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It is a good-quality 17th-century house that retains much of its original character.