Baxters Farmhouse

Baxter’s Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating from the late 16th to early 17th century, with possible origins in an earlier period, and refurbished in the late 19th century. It is constructed of local stone and flint rubble, featuring stone rubble stacks, one with a Hamstone ashlar chimneyshaft and the other topped with 19th-century brick. The roof is partly slate and partly corrugated iron, having formerly been thatched.

The original plan was a 3-room-and-through-passage layout, built down a hillslope facing south-west. To the left (north-west) is a parlour with a gable-end stack, adjacent to a wide passage. On the other side of the passage is a hall with an axial stack backing onto the passage, and to the right (south-east) a kitchen with a gable-end stack. Very little original carpentry remains visible, making it difficult to determine the early structural history. The visible features date to the late 16th and 17th centuries, and the building may have begun as an open hall house. The farmhouse is now two storeys high.

The exterior has an irregular four-window front, largely featuring late 19th to early 20th-century casement windows with glazing bars. One earlier window remains on the first floor at the right end, with rectangular panes of leaded glass. The passage front doorway has a late 19th-century part-glazed plank door behind a contemporary gabled porch. A secondary door into the kitchen at the right end also has a part-glazed plank door. A straight joint is visible in the front wall, just right of the passage, although its purpose is unknown. The roof is gable-ended and steps down, with slate over the hall and corrugated iron over the kitchen.

The interior largely reflects the late 19th-century refurbishment. The parlour lacks visible beams, and the fireplace is blocked by a 19th-century grate. The half beams in the passage and the axial beam in the hall are chamfered with stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops. The hall fireplace is stone rubble with an oak-framed front featuring a chamfered surround, with the supporting posts having substantial timbers. The kitchen has a large fireplace, likely from the 17th century, constructed of stone rubble with a chamfered oak lintel. The kitchen ceiling was replaced in the late 19th century, at a time when the farmhouse was occupied by a butcher, and this room was adapted for use as a slaughterhouse. The roofspace is inaccessible, and the roof trusses are incorporated into the first-floor partitions. Baxter’s Farmhouse has seen little modernisation in the 20th century. It is likely that further 16th and 17th-century features are concealed by 19th-century plaster, and the original roof may provide evidence of the farmhouse’s early structural development.