Combehayes Farmhouse

Farmhouse. Dating from around the late 16th and early 17th centuries, it was partly remodelled and extended in the early 19th century, with significant external alterations in the 20th century. The farmhouse is colourwashed and rendered, with a 20th-century tiled roof, gabled at the ends and hipped at the left end of the 19th-century block. It has an axial stack with a stone rubble shaft, and a right-end stack with a brick shaft. The original layout was approximately L-shaped, comprising a main range with a rear left wing at right angles, and an early 19th-century block with a higher roofline added to the right. The main range features a back-to-back fireplace arrangement in an axial stack, leading to a hall and unheated inner room to the left, and a possible lower end to the right. The fireplace in the lower end is brick and may have been added when a former space was converted into a parlour. The rear left wing is unheated, potentially serving as a dairy, and may be an addition from the later 17th century. There have been substantial 20th-century alterations to the exterior, including outshuts. The front facade is asymmetrical, with a 4:2 window arrangement; the two windows of the 19th-century block have a taller roofline. A 20th-century gabled porch sits to the left of the 19th-century block, which also has a French window. Windows are 20th-century 2- and 3-light timber small-pane casements. Inside, there is rich carpentry. The hall has chamfered spine beams with run-out stops, a plank and muntin screen with chamfered stopped muntins on the hall side, and an original doorframe into the inner room. A large open fireplace has a slightly raised, chamfered lintel from the 20th century, with massive rounded Beerstone ashlar jambs featuring unusual drop-shaped stops, and a large rounded bread oven projecting into the room and rising to the ceiling. The wing also has a chamfered beam. The added block contains 19th-century joinery. The main range’s roof incorporates side-pegged jointed cruck trusses with mortised collars and trenched purlins; there is no evidence of smoke blackening visible upstairs and the apex was inaccessible during a 1988 survey. A framed partition is located on the first floor above the hall, unconnected to a truss. The wing also has a jointed cruck roof. Despite 20th-century external renovations, the core of the late 16th and early 17th-century house remains, retaining good interior features.