Middle Allercombe Farmhouse

Farmhouse. Built in the early 17th century, it was likely enlarged in the late 18th or 19th century. The walls are plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with stone rubble or cob stacks topped with 19th-century brick, and a thatched roof. Originally a 4-room plan house facing north-east, the central entrance hall and rooms either side may represent the early 17th-century core. The right (north-western) end is an addition. Axial stacks are positioned between each of the central and outer rooms. The frontages of the outer rooms are concealed by farmbuildings projecting at right angles, enclosing a cobbled farm forecourt. The farmhouse is two storeys high. The symmetrical front has a late 19th-century arrangement of two 2-light casements, each light with 15 panes on the ground floor and 12 on the first. There is a contemporary 4-panel door, and a small third window to the right over a secondary plank door. The roof is hipped to the left, steps down by the right chimney stack to a lower level over the right end roof, which is also hipped and contains an end dormer. The interior, assessed under limited access, reveals that the inner right room has early 17th-century cross and half beams, soffit-chamfered with urn-late step stops. The large fireplace was originally cob but the sides have been rebuilt with 19th-century brick, and the oak lintel is covered over; it also contains a 19th-century brick and cast iron oven built into the floor. The remaining rooms were not inspected. The roof is believed to incorporate original A-frame trusses. It is a good, little-modernised farmhouse.