Horstone Farmhouse

Horstone Farmhouse

House, former farmhouse. Late 15th to early 16th century with major later 16th and 17th century improvements, a date plaque of 1587, enlarged in the late 19th century, and modernised around 1960. Formerly listed as Pinn Barton.

The main house is plastered cob on stone rubble footings. An extension of local conglomerate stone rubble has a chamfered limestone plinth, and its roadside gable end is of coursed blocks of dressed stone. Stone rubble and brick stacks are topped with 19th century brick. The hall has a late 16th century chimney shaft with Beerstone ashlar quoins. The roof is concrete tile, formerly thatch. The building is L-shaped with the main block facing south-east and a crosswing projecting forward from the left end. A 20th century outshot extends from the right end of the main block.

The main block follows a 3-room-and-through-passage plan with the inner room at the right (north-eastern) end. The wide passage is now blocked by a partition across the middle. The inner room has a gable end stack, the hall has a front projecting lateral stack, and the service end room is unheated and small, probably formerly a dairy. The main stair is likely 19th century and rises from the rear of the passage up the back of the hall. The 19th century crosswing has a 2-room plan with central stair and a gable end stack.

The house is two storeys. The main block has an irregular 3-window front of 19th and 20th century casements with glazing bars. The inner room window has been enlarged to a French window with a 20th century aluminium-framed conservatory in front. The front passage doorway is at the left end and contains a 20th century glazed door with a flat slate hood positioned in the angle of the wings. The hall stack has been rebuilt in 19th century brick with a fire window on the left side and slate offsets. Its tall double chimney shaft, however, is original, built of small blocks of grey limestone with Beerstone ashlar quoins and soffit-moulded coping. It includes a Beerstone plaque inscribed "ANO 1587" with the initials of Roger and John Pinn and three small incised ornaments. The first floor windows to the right of the stack rise a short distance into the eaves. Both wings have gable-ended roofs. Casements with glazing bars dating to the 19th and 20th centuries appear on the wing and rear elevations. The front left corner of the 19th century wing is propped by 20th century buttresses. A stone mounting block stands on the front end of this wing.

Interior: The oldest feature is the remains of a late 15th to early 16th century roof truss over the lower side of the passage. The lower part is boxed into a partition but is assumed to be some form of cruck construction, constructed from large timbers with a cambered collar. Although the apex is missing, a section of a square set ridge survives. Both the truss and timbers are heavily smoke-blackened, indicating a house open to the roof, heated by an open hearth fire and probably divided by low partitions. The rest of the roof structure, including that of the front wing, was replaced around 1960.

The partitions either side of the passage are plastered. The front section on the hall side has been demolished, revealing the headbeam of a 16th or 17th century oak plank-and-muntin screen. The service end room has a plain soffit-chamfered axial beam, probably 17th century. In the hall, the fireplace is mostly 19th century brick with a 20th century oak lintel. The 3-bay ceiling is carried on soffit-chamfered crossbeams with double bar-scroll stops, detail that usually indicates a date well into the 17th century for the flooring of the hall, though the double chimney shaft suggests a first floor fireplace in 1587 unless the plaque was reset in a 17th century shaft. No carpentry is exposed in the inner room and the fireplace there appears to be 19th century. Joinery detail throughout is 19th and 20th century.

Horstone Farmhouse is marked "formerly Higher Pinn" on Ordnance Survey maps. The farmbuildings to the south-west mentioned in previous listings have been demolished.