Hornshayne Farmhouse Including Front Garden Wall Adjoining To South And Granary And Stables Adjoining To North

Hornshayne Farmhouse, including its adjoining front garden wall to the south and granary and stables to the north, is a substantial farmhouse complex of major historical and architectural importance.

The main farmhouse incorporates early to mid-17th century work, possibly with earlier material, but was substantially rebuilt circa 1700 by Benedict Marwood. A stable was added in 1878, the main house underwent renovation circa 1900, and the kitchen wing was refurbished circa 1950. The buildings are constructed of local flint stone rubble with Beerstone ashlar dressings; the kitchen block is plastered, and the stable has brick dressings. Stone rubble chimneys are topped with brick dating from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The main house and kitchen wing are roofed in thatch, with slate covering the kitchen wing.

The complex follows a U-plan arrangement with the main block facing south. The main block contains a four-room plan with a central entrance door leading to an entrance hall. To the left of centre is a room, with a corridor running along the rear wall connecting to staircases at each end. The larger main staircase is positioned at the left (west) end behind a parlour. The parlour and entrance hall share an axial chimney stack with back-to-back fireplaces. To the right of the entrance hall is a small unheated room; at the left end is a large room, probably originally a dining room, with its own axial stack backing onto the unheated room. Behind these rooms, the service corridor and staircase project further to the rear. A kitchen block projects at right angles to the rear, overlapping the right end of the main block, with a two-room plan. The first room is the largest and contains a large projecting lateral kitchen stack on its outer side; the second room has a gable-end stack, though the end was rebuilt circa 1950. Another block projects at right angles from the rear of the left end. The two rooms nearest the house are unheated and may formerly have been agricultural; the outer room on the first floor remains a granary with an external stair. The remaining spaces are now domestic. Beyond lies a stable block dated 1878. Both rear blocks were built before circa 1700, though the main block appears to date wholly from circa 1700, with some earlier features reused within it. The kitchen block has been divided to function as a self-contained labourer's cottage. The main block and east kitchen wing are two storeys with attics in the roofspace; the west wing is two storeys, and the stables have a hayloft above.

Externally, the main block originally had a symmetrical seven-window front. Circa 1900, the two ground floor windows were united to form a wider window; all are now circa 1900 mullion-and-transom windows. The central front doorway contains a circa 1700 two-panel door in a solid bead-moulded frame beneath a hood on shaped brackets, likely contemporary with the rebuild. The roof is hipped at each end. At the rear of the main block is a two-window section of original circa 1700 oak windows. One first-floor window may be slightly earlier, featuring chamfered mullions; the remainder have flat-faced mullions, with the larger ground floor examples bearing transoms. All contain rectangular panes of leaded glass. The east kitchen wing features 20th-century casements with glazing bars. The west wing's inner courtyard face includes a section of neatly-squared flint blocks, presumably from the pre-1700 house. The stable includes a door and two windows set under brick segmental arches with Beerstone keystones, and a hayloft loading hatch in the gable-end wall above which is inscribed a plaque dated EME 1878.

The interior of the main block contains substantial circa 1700 joinery detail. Most doorways contain two-panel doors. The main staircase is also contemporary—a fine dogleg stair with closed string, square newel posts with ball finials, a flat moulded handrail, and large turned newel posts. The service staircase is a smaller version. Some exposed fireplaces retain reused 16th-century Beerstone jambs, chamfered with urn stops. A bolection chimneypiece removed from one fireplace is stored in the attic. The roof is constructed of tie beam trusses. Of the two rooms in the west wing, one features a 16th-century chamfered crossbeam with pyramid stops, and the other a 17th-century chamfered crossbeam with scroll stops. The roof here includes remnants of one side-pegged jointed cruck truss. The east kitchen wing contains an enormous kitchen fireplace of Beerstone ashlar with a massive chamfered oak lintel. The large oven has been relined with 19th-century brick. The crossbeam is chamfered with pyramid stops, and the roof above is carried on clean side-pegged jointed cruck trusses.

Hornshayne appears as "Hornsheies" in records from 1333. It was occupied by George Haydon in the 16th century. The present house was built by Benedict Marwood, who died there in 1745. This house is part of a group of similar Marwood houses in the area and represents an exceptionally interesting and well-preserved example of its type.