Milton Farmhouse

Milton Farmhouse is a 16th and 17th century farmhouse that was extensively re-roofed and modernised in the late 18th and early 19th century, and renovated around 1980. It is constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with a stone rubble and cot stack containing plastered chimney shafts, and an asbestos slate roof.

The house originally comprised a 4-room-and-through-passage plan, facing south-west. A holiday cottage was added circa 1980 to the lower end. The ground-floor parlour features a former end stack backing onto the cottage, and the main staircase rises from the passage behind the parlour. The hall has an axial stack also backing onto the passage. A small, unheated inner room, now used as a kitchen, likely functioned as a service room, possibly a buttery, pantry, or dairy, with the hall previously serving as the kitchen.

The late 18th and early 19th century modernisation obscured the original layout; however, the inner room chamber jetties into the hall, indicating it originated as part of a 16th century open hall house. The house is two storeys high, with a secondary lean-to extension at the back.

The front elevation is heavily buttressed and features a symmetrical 4-window front with 1980s casement windows incorporating glazing bars. A late 19th to early 20th century four-panel door, set within a contemporary gabled porch on plain posts, is centrally positioned in the passage front. The roof is gable-ended.

Internally, the layout is well-preserved despite the later modernisation. Blocked fireplaces reveal parts of a late 16th to early 17th century hollow-chamfered oak lintel to the hall fireplace. Ceiling beams are boxed in, but evidence of an internal jetty exists at the upper end of the hall. A late 16th to early 17th century oak doorframe with a cambered head and chamfered surround is located at the rear of the passage. The roof structure consists of late 18th to early 19th century A-frame trusses with spiked lap-jointed collars and X-apexes.

Care should be taken during any internal alterations to avoid disturbing potential hidden 16th or 17th century features.