Rose Farmhouse

Rose Farmhouse

Farmhouse dating from the early to mid-16th century, with major improvements made in the late 16th and early 17th centuries (a date plaque of 1620 was formerly present). The building underwent major refurbishment in the early to mid-19th century. It is constructed of plastered local stone and flint rubble, probably with some cob, with stone rubble chimneys. The hall stack has a plastered chimneyshaft and may still include the historic date plaque; the other stack is topped with 19th-century brick. The roof is thatched, though part has been replaced with asbestos slate.

The original plan was a 3-room-and-through-passage design, facing east or east-north-east. At the lower (south) end, next to the road, is a small unheated inner room, probably originally a dairy or buttery. Adjacent is the hall, which has an axial stack backing onto a wide passage. At the upper (north) end is a service end parlour with a gable-end stack. The present layout largely results from early 17th-century refurbishment, possibly of 1620. Before this, the house was smaller, occupying only the passage-hall-inner room section. This section was originally open to the roof throughout, heated by an open hearth fire. The inner room was likely floored over in the mid-16th century. The hall stack dates to the late 16th or early 17th century, and the hall was floored over in the early 17th century, at which point the parlour was added and the hall downgraded to a kitchen. The parlour end was refurbished and reroofed in the early or mid-19th century, probably when the farmhouse was subdivided into cottages. The cottages were reunited into a single house in the 20th century, and the passage front doorway was blocked.

The building is 2 storeys with an irregular 2-window front of 20th-century casements with glazing bars. The former passage front doorway, originally positioned slightly left of centre, is now blocked by a third ground floor window, with the blocking recessed from the main front. Near the left end is an inserted doorway containing a part-glazed 20th-century door. The roof is half-hipped to the left and gable-ended to the right, stepping up from the thatch over the passage to the asbestos slate section over the parlour end. At the rear, the hall bay breaks forward from the main block. The passage rear doorway contains a 20th-century door. Most windows are 20th-century, although the ground floor parlour window is an early 17th-century Beerstone 3-light window with ovolo-moulded mullions and hoodmould. A 19th-century store outshot behind the inner room contains a reset 17th-century oak window with chamfered mullions.

Interior: The former hall contains a large Beerstone ashlar fireplace with a chamfered oak lintel and an oven. The half beam is chamfered with pyramid stops. The crosswall between hall and inner room is of large oak framing. The roof above the original section is early to mid-16th century, spanning 2 bays. The base of the truss is plastered over, but its shape indicates a jointed cruck. In the solid wall between passage and parlour is a hip cruck, indicating the end of the original house. This original roof is smoke-blackened from the original open hearth fire. The parlour extension was mostly rebuilt in the 19th century, although the roughly chamfered crossbeam and the fireplace with plain oak lintel may be early 17th-century.