Lower Milton Farmhouse

The Lower Milton Farmhouse is a late 17th-century farmhouse, with substantial rebuilding in the mid- or late 19th century. The walls are a mix of plastered surfaces, late 17th-century brick, cob on stone rubble footings, and local stone rubble from the 19th-century rebuilding. Stacks are constructed of stone rubble and brick, topped with 19th and 20th-century brick. It has a thatched roof. The original plan was a 3-room-and-through-passage layout, facing south-east. This comprised a parlour with an end stack on the south-west side, a former kitchen with an axial stack backing onto a small, originally unheated room likely used as a buttery or dairy. Staircases and service areas are housed in probable integral 2-storey outshots along the rear. In the 19th century, the parlour end was rebuilt and the house modernized. The original kitchen was upgraded to a dining room, and a kitchen stack was inserted into the right end of the outshots. This refurbishment may be linked to a 1353 date plaque on a nearby cellar. The exterior presents an irregular 4-window front with 19th-century and replacement 20th-century casement windows with glazing bars. The passage front doorway is located to the left of centre and features a partly-glazed 19th-century panelled door set behind a 20th-century gabled porch. The roof is half-hipped on the left and hipped on the right, with a ridge that returns to a rear gable over the 19th-century kitchen and the eaves carried down over the outshots. A rear window is oak-framed and may date back to the late 17th century. The parlour’s interior is 19th-century and lacks exposed carpentry. The axial beam in the central room has shallow chamfers with run-out stops, and the oak lintel over the fireplace has a similar finish. Roof inspection was not possible, but straight principals from A-frame trusses are visible at first floor level.