Shermans Farmhouse

Shermans Farmhouse is a substantial farmhouse dated 1575, with minor 20th-century alterations. The building is rendered, probably flint rubble, with slate roofs that are hipped at the left end of the main range and gabled at the right end and at the wing. It features a south lateral stack and a right end stack with a stone shaft and ashlar quoins, plus a projecting end stack to the wing with a similar shaft and a probably secondary lateral stack on the north elevation.

The plan form is L-shaped and appears to be a single-phase building, which is unusual. The main range runs on a west-east axis and is four rooms wide with a through passage and a rear stair projection to the south. The south side, now the rear of the house, may have been the original entrance elevation, with a north-east wing at right angles to the front left. Sherman's Farmhouse is larger than the conventional vernacular house of the region, and the plan form is of particular historic interest. The hall to the left of the cross passage is heated by the lateral stack. The left end of the main range is divided between a small unheated service room and a passage leading to the stair cell at the extreme east end. The right end room may have been the kitchen, with evidence of a void adjacent to the stack which may be a smoking chamber, and is linked to the cross passage by an original axial rear passage which also gives access to the stair projection. In front of the axial passage sits a small room, probably originally unheated, with an inserted corner stack. The front left wing may have been the parlour wing, with a high-status chamber above. The parlour wing is now used as the kitchen, and the right end room is used for agricultural purposes.

The exterior is two storeys with an asymmetrical four-window north front. There is an 18th or 19th-century front door to the through passage with a moulded oak doorframe. The date 1575 is inscribed on the front to the left. The windows are a good set of ovolo-moulded and chamfered mullioned windows: a five-light ovolo-moulded window to the left of the front door, three first-floor chamfered mullioned windows to the first floor left, a four-light ovolo-moulded mullioned window to the first floor right, and a one-light window to the ground floor right. There is a separate door into the right-hand room. The inner return of the wing has a ground-floor five-light ovolo-moulded mullioned window and a similar four-light window above, with a door into the wing at the junction with the main range. The right return of the main range has a 20th-century doorway broken through the stack. The rear south elevation has a 19th-century rear door to the passage, glazed at the top with a stair projection to the left, and a set of two- and three-light casements of 19th or 20th-century date with glazing bars.

The interior is very unspoiled with a fine set of chamfered doorframes on the ground and first floors. The hall retains 17th-century panelling, painted white, on the left east side. The axial passage has chamfered beams with scroll stops, and the west end room has a chamfered stopped crossbeam and the remains of a rendered-over plank and muntin screen on the east side. There is an original chamfered doorframe to the stair in the projection. The winder stair in the east end stair cell has a two-tier balustrade with moulded balusters. The north-east wing has a good moulded stone chimney-piece on the first floor.

The roof features a complete set of probable cruck trusses with mortised collars, butt purlins, and a new ridge. The collars of the trusses have holes drilled in the centre, possibly for assembly. A plastered partition projects into the roofspace at the east end, suggesting that the stair cell originally had a higher ceiling. The trusses over the wing are similar to those over the main range.

Sherman's Farmhouse is a fine, large-scale traditional house, said to have been the home of Robert Sherman who built or remodelled Town Farmhouse in 1600. The survival of the early windows is unusual, and the interior is of interest both for its plan form and visible early features; other features may be concealed by later wall plaster.