Francis Court Farmhouse

Francis Court Farmhouse is a farmhouse with a core dating back to the 15th century, which underwent significant renovations in the late 16th to early 17th centuries and again in the 19th century. It is constructed from a mix of cob and volcanic trap, rendered, and features a dry slate gabled-end roof. Originally designed with a three-room through-passage layout, it retains a fragment of a smoke-blackened roof. The building is now L-shaped due to the addition of a parlour wing at the rear of the left-hand end.

Inside, there are internal end stacks and a lateral front stack located just below the roof ridge, which was originally an axial stack before the late 19th-century re-roofing. The farmhouse has two storeys. The front facade displays scattered fenestration, including three 2-light windows above with lintels at wall-plate level, a 19th-century panelled door leading to the passage under a tiled and boarded porch, and additional windows on either side of the passage entrance. All windows are timber casements with six panes per light. There is also a lean-to and another front entrance with a 19th-century panelled door at the extreme right-hand end.

At the rear, there is clear evidence of heightening from the 19th century before the current plaster was applied. The interior features a kitchen at the lower end to the right of the passage, with two beams that are both chamfered with hollow step stops, and a partially dismantled former end fireplace. The hall fireplace has chamfered stone jambs, two recesses in the rear wall, and a course of vertical slates, along with one axial beam that is chamfered and unstopped. The parlour wing boasts a well-preserved ceiling from around 1600, featuring a large cross beam with composite moulding of ovolo and cavetto, and twelve subordinate axial beams on each side with double-concave mouldings that are stopped.

The roof at the lower end is entirely from the 19th century, but fragments of a medieval roof remain, including a hip cruck at the left-hand end and one blade and side-pegged yoke of a smoke-blackened principal, possibly a jointed cruck, which now rests on an inserted axial stack. The 19th-century roof extends over the entire length of the house. Additionally, there is a 19th-century water hand pump located under the right-hand front porch.