Palmerhayes Farmhouse

Farmhouse. Dating from around the late 15th/early 16th century, it was remodelled around the 17th century and extended in the 18th century, with further alterations and extensions in the 20th century. The construction is stone rubble with a thatched roof featuring gabled and hipped ends, and stone rubble axial and gable end stacks.

The original house likely had a 2 or 3-room layout with a through-passage, and the lower end (west) was open to the roof, heated by an open hearth, and probably divided by low partitions. An axial stack was inserted at the low end of the hall, backing onto the through-passage, possibly before the hall was floored in the 17th century. The large stone stack at the low end was likely built when the walls were rebuilt in stone in the 17th century. The house was extended at the high (east) end around the late 17th/18th century, and a wing to the rear of the low end was probably added in the 18th century. In the 20th century, an outshut was built in the angle of the rear wing, and a large porch was added to the front.

The south front is asymmetrical with four windows. It features 20th-century casement windows and a through-passage doorway to the left of centre, with a plank door and a large 20th-century thatched porch. At the rear, a hipped roof 2-storey wing is on the right, with a lean-to outshut on its inner side. A small 3-light wooden mullion window is located on the first floor of the main range's right side.

The interior retains some original features. The axial hall stack, built of stone rubble, backs onto the through-passage and has a chamfered timber lintel at a high level under a deeply chamfered beam; a chamfered half-beam is present at the high end of the former hall, while the unchamfered joists are elsewhere. The wall between the hall and the upper end room has been removed. The low end room has a rebuilt fireplace and replaced joists. The medieval roof over the low (west) end retains original side-pegged jointed cruck open truss over the low side passage partition, with a cambered collar and diagonally set trenched ridgepiece, as well as trenched purlins, all smoke-blackened, including common rafters; the rear pitch of the low end roof has original smoke-blackened wattle matting and thatch. The roof over the high end has a later truss with crossing principals at the apex.