Seniors Guesthouse

Seniors Guesthouse, originally a farmhouse, likely dates to the mid-to-late 16th century, with significant improvements made in the 17th century and modernisation in the late 19th century. The exterior is plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with some later 19th-century repairs. It features cob or stone rubble stacks topped with 20th-century brick, and a thatch roof to some outshots, with concrete tiles to others. The house was originally designed with a 3-room-and-through-passage plan, facing north, with the inner room on the eastern end. A large kitchen end stack serves the service room, and an axial stack is located backing onto the passage. The main house is two storeys high. The front fenestration is irregular, with late 19th and 20th-century casement windows featuring glazing bars. The ground floor rooms each have a window, with a 20th-century French window replacing one, and a small ingle-light window to the hall fireplace. Only the chamber above the hall has a front window. The front passage doorway, located to the right of centre, has a late 19th-century 6-panel door within a 20th-century open porch with a semi-conical thatched roof. The roof is half-hipped to the left and gable-ended to the right. A section of the left end wall is likely rebuilt in brick and includes a late 19th-century 6-pane sash window. The interior was modernised in the late 19th century, concealing much of the earlier structure behind plaster of that date. Although few 16th-century features are visible, the layout suggests a house of that date, with improvements made in the 17th century. The service room was improved in the mid-17th century, with a soffit-chamfered crossbeam featuring unusual run-out stops – a kind of reverse scroll with two nicks. The fireplace in that room is probably contemporary, though blocked by a 19th-century grate, and its substantial size is evident. An adjacent cupboard was likely originally a walk-in smoking chamber, linked to the fireplace by an arch at hearth level. The hall fireplace probably has a cob soffit-chamfered oak lintel propped by oak posts, likely dating from the early 17th century, and an axial beam with scroll stops. An oak post supports the beam against the fireplace, suggesting a floor was inserted into a hall originally open to the roof. Upstairs, the roof trusses are boxed into the partitions, making the roof space inaccessible. While little of the early house is exposed, its structure appears to be well-preserved, and care should be taken during modernisation work as it’s likely to reveal 16th or 17th-century features. The main crosswalls are timber-framed, probably belonging to the early structure, and may include plank-and-muntin screens; the roof too may be of considerable interest.