Whitehall Farmhouse

Whitehall Farmhouse is a farmhouse built in the 16th and 17th centuries and thoroughly refurbished and partly rebuilt around 1930. It is constructed from exposed local stone and flint rubble with stone rubble stacks topped with plastered 20th-century brick. The roof is of interlocking tile, originally thatch.

The house has a double-depth plan facing south-south-west and is built down the hillslope. The wider front section is the historic core and contains a 4-room-and-through-passage plan. At the downhill right (east) end is the service end, formerly a kitchen with a gable-end stack. Next to it is the passage; on the other side is the former hall with an axial stack backing onto the passage. At the upper end of the hall is a parlour with an axial stack backing onto a small unheated left (west) end room, probably a 18th and 19th-century extension. The house is 2 storeys throughout.

The roof was completely replaced around 1930, preventing detailed determination of the historic development. Exposed old features are late 16th and early 17th-century in date, although the layout suggests the house began earlier in the 16th century as some form of open hall house. There is some evidence for an internal jetty at the upper end of the hall. The rear rooms derive from secondary outshots across the back of the original house. The earliest of these outshots, probably late 17th or early 18th-century, was 2 storeys and was probably a dairy or buttery behind the original kitchen. Around 1930 the outshots were built up to 2 storeys and a new roof constructed across the whole house. The main stair is in the rear section behind the through-passage and dates from around 1930.

The exterior features an irregular 5-window front with 20th-century casement windows with glazing bars. The passage front doorway is right of centre and contains a late 19th or early 20th-century part-glazed 4-panel door behind a 20th-century gabled porch. High in the wall just left of centre is set a probably incomplete plaque faintly inscribed with the initials M.T.D. and an illegible date. The main roof is gable-ended.

Late 16th and early 17th-century features are confined to the ground floor rooms of the front 3-room-and-through-passage plan section. The lower (former kitchen) side of the passage is lined with an oak plank-and-muntin screen. The former kitchen fireplace is of Beerstone ashlar (since relined with stone rubble) with an oak lintel, part of which is moulded but to the right fades into a sunken chamfer with step stops. To the left of the fireplace is an oven housing projecting into the room. The axial beams are chamfered with step stops. At the back of the passage is an oak 4-centred arch doorway with chamfered surround. The hall has a large Beerstone ashlar fireplace with an oak lintel and chamfered surround. The hall ceiling comprises 4 panels of richly-moulded intersecting beams with exposed chamfered and step-stopped joists. The parlour has a similar but plainer 4-panel intersecting beam ceiling with plastered panels. The parlour fireplace is of Beerstone ashlar with an oak lintel and chamfered surround in which the jambs have carved motifs towards the bottom (a heart and a sheaf of corn) and at the top the initials ID each side. There is no evidence of early carpentry on the first floor; the roof is a complete rebuild of around 1930.