Cookshayes Farmhouse Including Gate Piers Adjoining To South

Cookshayes Farmhouse is a substantial farmhouse dating from the late 16th to early 17th century, with a possible earlier core, though it was partly rebuilt and thoroughly refurbished in 1702 by Robert Marwood. The building is constructed of plastered local stone and flint rubble with some Beerstone detail, stone rubble stacks with 18th, 19th and 20th century brick chimneyshafts, and thatch roofs, some of which have been replaced with corrugated iron.

The house is two storeys high and comprises a main block facing south with a 3-room plan, supplemented by wings and a turret. The main block has the left end room with a projecting gable-end stack and the centre room with an axial stack backing onto it as the two principal rooms, one of which was the dining room. Behind the centre room is a narrow room. The right end contains the main stair with a stable behind, and a large front room in a wing projecting at right angles with a projecting outer lateral stack. An entrance hall is housed in a 2-storey turret positioned in the angle between the two wings. A kitchen wing projects at right angles to the rear of the left (west) end, featuring a wide building with a narrow outer (west) room that was probably originally a dairy or buttery, and a large gable-end stack in the kitchen itself. A service stair connects the kitchen to the front room.

The present layout is essentially the result of the 1702 refurbishment, though the basic fabric appears to date from the late 16th to early 17th century with parts possibly earlier. A crosswing on the left (west) end or south end of the present crosswing is believed to have existed formerly.

The exterior displays a regular 4:1:1-window front. Most windows are 20th century casements, though the crosswing's gable end windows lack glazing bars. Two first floor windows of the main block are notable late 16th to early 17th century 2-light Beerstone windows with ovolo-moulded mullions and hoodmoulds. Similar windows appear on the entrance lobby and inner (west) side of the crosswing; some are blocked whilst others contain rectangular panes of leaded glass. The main doorway on the inner side of the entrance lobby features an early 17th century hoodmould. Windows around the rest of the house are mostly 20th century casements with glazing bars, though a couple of late 16th to early 17th century oak windows with ovolo-moulded mullions and a couple of early 18th century oak flat-faced mullion windows also survive. The main block roof, entrance lobby, kitchen block and crosswing roofs all have gable ends with shaped kneelers and coping. The left gable end of the main block is blind and has a stone mounting block in front.

The interior reveals surviving late 16th to early 17th century carpentry and early 18th century joinery detail. The kitchen contains a late 16th to early 17th century chamfered and step-stopped crossbeam. A large contemporary fireplace there is blocked, though its oak-framed front is exposed, and behind it in the outside wall are two oven doorways; the ovens and their housing have been removed. In the main block and crosswing, all structural carpentry is plastered over. The left room of the main block has a large early 18th century bolection chimneypiece, whilst the large fireplace in the crosswing has a 19th century chimneypiece. The main stair is also early 18th century, a good dogleg stair with closed string, square newel posts, moulded handrail and turned balusters.

Adjoining the house to the south is a tall stone rubble garden wall projecting forward from the left end of the front, containing early 18th century Beerstone ashlar gate posts. These are square in section with alternate projecting blocks and ball finials.