Scorlinch Farmhouse

Scorlinch Farmhouse

Farmhouse with 16th-century origins, 17th-century improvements, and major early to mid 19th-century modernisation. Constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings with stone rubble chimney stacks topped with 19th-century brick. Thatch roof to the main house with slate covering the rear outshots.

The house follows a 4-room-and-through-passage plan facing south-south-east. The left (west) end contains a lower end parlour with a rear lateral stack. Next is the passage, which has a 19th-century stairblock projecting to the rear. The hall features a large projecting front lateral stack. Alongside is a small unheated room now used as a kitchen but formerly a dairy or buttery. The right (east) end inner room has a projecting end stack and was probably originally a kitchen. This layout is largely the result of late 19th and early 20th-century modernisation, although it appears the house originally developed from some form of open hall structure, though most early evidence is hidden beneath plaster.

The house is 2 storeys with a late 18th to early 19th-century 2-storey outshot on the right (east) end containing a cellar with hayloft over, and late 19th and 20th-century lean-to outshots across the rear. The roof is half-hipped to the left and hipped over the cellar outshot.

The south-facing exterior has an irregular 5-window front of 19th-century casements. The passage doorway is left of centre and contains an early to mid 19th-century 4-panel door behind a late 19th to early 20th-century tile-roofed porch on plain posts. The large projecting hall stack has slate coping to the offsets.

The interior is largely the result of 19th-century modernisation with extensive plastering, though the earlier layout remains well-preserved. In the lower end parlour the fireplace has a 19th-century chimneypiece and the crossbeams are plastered. The passage is blocked at the back by the 19th-century stair, which features an open string with stick balusters. The hall fireplace is obscured by a 20th-century grate, but the crossbeams remain exposed here, chamfered with run-out stops and probably dating to the late 16th century. The former dairy and inner room have axial beams that are plastered over, with the inner room fireplace blocked by a 20th-century grate.

Most of the roof space is inaccessible with trusses boxed into the first floor partition, though the chamber over the parlour shows an A-frame truss that was plastered over around 1650. The panels formed by the crosswalls, truss and purlins have moulded plaster friezes. Most joinery is 19th-century, though some earlier pieces survive: the dairy contains a late 17th to early 18th-century cupboard with a fielded panel door on H-hinges, and there are a couple of contemporary 2-panel doors on the first floor.

This farmhouse has undergone little modernisation since the early to mid 19th century. That 19th-century refurbishment represents an important phase in the building's development and its character should be preserved. Care should be taken during any modernisation work to avoid disturbing surviving 16th or 17th-century features.