Little Ullcombe Farmhouse

Little Ullcombe Farmhouse

Farmhouse, now converted into two cottages. The building originated in the mid 16th century and underwent major improvements in the late 16th and 17th centuries, with some 19th century extensions. It was renovated around 1980. The structure is built from plastered local stone and flint rubble, possibly with some cob, with stone rubble stacks topped in 20th century brick and a thatch roof.

The original plan was a three-room-and-through-passage house, which has been subdivided into two adjoining cottages. The conversion involved bringing into domestic use 19th century agricultural outbuildings at each end of the building. The house is orientated to face south-east and sits on level ground.

The left (south-west) cottage contains a three-room plan. At its left end, a former small barn has been converted to domestic use. Next to this is the former end room of the main house, an unheated inner room now used as a kitchen but originally functioning as a dairy or buttery. The third room in this cottage is the former hall, which features an axial stack backing onto the passage that is now part of the right cottage. The right cottage occupies the original through-passage and the former service end kitchen with an axial stack (formerly a gable-end stack). This adjoins a converted agricultural outbuilding, now used as domestic space.

The original three-room-and-through-passage section dates from the mid 16th century. The roof timbers appear clean and unsmoked, suggesting the house was built with a hall stack from the beginning. The structure was apparently only partially floored initially; the hall was open to the roof, though the chamber above the dairy or buttery is considered an original feature despite jettying into the upper end of the hall. The service end was refurbished as a kitchen in the early or mid 17th century, likely at the time when the hall was floored over.

The farmhouse is two storeys tall. The exterior presents an irregular four-window front with 20th century casements featuring glazing bars, including a dormer window over the passage. The passage front has a roughly central doorway with a 19th century plank door, and another doorway immediately to its right, also with a 19th century plank door. A third front doorway has been inserted further left into the former inner room and contains a 20th century door behind a contemporary porch. The roof is gable-ended with uneven eaves lines and is brought down as a pent roof on plain timber posts in front of the right cottage.

Inside, the former inner room has no main beam, though the large scantling axial joists are original, cantilevered over the inner room and hall partition to support the jettied chamber above. The partition is a large-framed screen. The hall likewise has no crossbeam. The large hall fireplace is built in limestone ashlar with an oak lintel and chamfered surround. The former service end kitchen ceiling was renewed around 1950, but the 17th century fireplace remains, constructed in stone rubble with an oak-framed front and containing an oven. The roof is carried on side-pegged jointed crucks with cambered collars and includes a hip cruck with the remains of a gavel-fork arrangement at the inner room end. The roofspace is inaccessible, but the owner, who undertook the circa 1980 renovation, confirms that the timbers were not smoke-blackened.