Higher Comberoy Farmhouse

Higher Comberoy Farmhouse is a large farmhouse dating from around 1500, with various alterations and additions over the years. The building features cob construction with a stone plinth, rendered surfaces, and a gabled-end slate roof. It was originally designed with a three-room through passage plan, to which two cross wings have been added at the front.

Inside, only the hall shows signs of smoke blackening. The farmhouse has a large external front lateral stack with a brick shaft and a bulge for a bake oven, which heats the lower end to the left of the passage. The right-hand end stack serves the parlour, while a large inserted back lateral external stack (partly gabled) heats the hall. The farmhouse is two storeys high.

The front elevation features two projecting wings, each with a large 19th-century three-light timber casement window on both floors, with six panes in each light and shallow segmental window arches. The lower end of the main range has no windows and is dominated by the stack. There is a doorway to the passage under a canopy supported by shaped brackets, and to the right, there is one two-light window on each floor, also with six panes in each light. The angle between the right-hand wing and the main range is occupied by a stair turret, which is lit by a one-light window below and a two-light window above.

At the rear, there is a five-window range featuring two and three-light windows with 20th-century timber casements. The rear of the left-hand wing, which was formerly a dairy, retains a small pointed stone embrasure about 20 centimeters tall, while the rest of the fenestration is from the 19th century.

Inside, the lower end room has a very large fireplace that is now concealed. The former hall on the ground floor features four large chamfered beams with run-out stops. The roof consists of five principal rafters; the outer principals above the lower end and parlour are clean, with purlins threaded, collars and apex morticed and side-pegged, and a diagonal ridge piece. The inner three principals over the hall are smoke-blackened, with the one over the parlour end only blackened on the hall side, and they are similar to the clean trusses except that the ridge piece is threaded.