Higher Shelvin Farmhouse

Higher Shelvin Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, with significant refurbishment in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and again in 1987. It is constructed of plastered local stone and flint rubble, with a stone rubble stack topped with plastered bricks, and a slate roof, originally thatched. The house follows a five-room plan, facing south-east and built across a hillside. The original kitchen, at the south-west end, lacks a chimney stack and likely served as a store. Adjacent is an entrance lobby containing the main staircase and a rear doorway. The centre of the house comprises a parlour (the former hall) and another parlour, the latter formerly the kitchen, with an axial stack serving back-to-back fireplaces. A further unheated room, probably a former dairy or buttery, is located at the north-east end, with a service staircase nearby. The current layout largely reflects the late 19th and early 20th-century refurbishment, although it is believed the house initially began as an open hall house in the 16th century. The hall and an inner room (now the entrance lobby) are of original fabric. The hall fireplace and ceiling are from the late 16th to early 17th centuries. The former kitchen has been substantially rebuilt, and its features date uncertain, but it was probably converted from the original passage and service end in the mid to late 17th century. The farmhouse is two storeys high with single-storey lean-to outshots to the rear. Externally, the front has a regular, though not symmetrical, five-window facade with 20th-century casements featuring glazing bars, some iron-framed; there is no front doorway. The roof is hipped at both ends. The rear elevation features 1987 timber casements with glazing bars and a C19 plank door within the main doorway. The interior has largely been influenced by late 18th, early 19th, and 20th-century refurbishments. However, late 16th to early 17th-century features are exposed in the hall, which includes an oak plank-and-muntin screen. On the hall side, the muntins are chamfered with step stops, designed to accommodate a bench. The hall fireplace has Beerstone ashlar jambs, an oak lintel, and a chamfered surround. The ceiling is comprised of four panels of intersecting beams with deep chamfers. The parlour/former kitchen has a large stone rubble fireplace with a replacement timber lintel. The crossbeams in both the hall and present kitchen are 1987 replacements. The roof was not inspected, but the bases of straight principals are visible below the first-floor ceiling, indicating they are likely from the late 18th to early 19th centuries. A cruck post foot is revealed in the rear wall behind the hall/entrance lobby screen; the rest of the truss is integrated into the first-floor partition. The current roof appears to be higher than the original.