Smithenhayes Farmhouse

Smithenhayes Farmhouse is a Grade II* listed farmhouse in Luppitt. The building dates from the early 16th century and was enlarged and rearranged in a single late 16th to early 17th century building phase, with modernisation undertaken around 1975.

The farmhouse is constructed from local stone and flint rubble with a considerable amount of cob in the rear wall. Two stone rubble stacks serve as chimneys, one retaining a stone rubble chimneyshaft and the other topped with 19th century brick. The main roof is thatched, with interlocking tile roofs covering the outshots.

The building follows a 3-room-and-through-passage plan, oriented to face south and built down a gentle hillslope. At the upper (west) end stands an unheated inner room, probably a former dairy or buttery. The hall adjoins this, containing an axial stack backing onto the passage. At the lower (east) end is the former service kitchen with a gable-end stack. This layout represents a major late 16th to early 17th century rearrangement and enlargement of the original farmhouse. The stone rubble crosswall on the lower side of the passage is the original end wall. The original structure would have been an open hall house heated by an open hearth fire, though evidence of any intermediate improvements is now hidden or replaced.

The house is two storeys with secondary lean-to outshots to the rear. The front elevation shows irregular fenestration comprising four ground floor and three first floor windows, all late 19th and 20th century casements with glazing bars. The passage doorway is positioned right of centre and contains a 20th century part-glazed plank door. The straight join between the original house and kitchen extension is visible on the facade. The roof is half-hipped to the left and gable-ended to the right.

The wide passage is floored with 19th century brick. The rear doorway, now opening to the rear outshots, retains an original early 16th century oak frame with a 2-centred arch. A similar doorframe has been reset in the rear outshot now used as kitchen. On the former kitchen side of the passage, the doorway contains a late 16th to early 17th century oak doorframe with an unusually shaped head resembling an angular ogee arch, surrounded by a chamfered surround.

Both the hall and former kitchen feature chamfered crossbeams with pyramid stops, though one crossbeam in the kitchen bears unstopped chamfers. The large fireplaces in both rooms have limestone ashlar jambs, oak lintels, and chamfered surrounds with pyramid stops. The hall fireplace retains panelled cheeks with old graffitis. An oven in this fireplace is a 19th century insertion. The inner room contains no exposed carpentry.

On the first floor, a blocked window in the rear wall over the passage doorway still contains a late 16th to early 17th century 2-light oak window with a chamfered mullion. During the circa 1975 renovation, a contemporary larger 2-light window was removed from the rear wall of the hall. Along with the western crossbeam, it was found to occupy the blocking of the original full height window embrasure, the upper sides of which bore smoke-blackening from the original open hearth fire. The roof structure over the hall, visible in limited sections of the roofspace, is likewise smoke-blackened and is carried on side-pegged jointed cruck trusses. An original hip cruck sits in the lower passage wall. The roof over the former kitchen extension is carried on late 16th to early 17th century side-pegged jointed cruck trusses, set into the tops of the crossbeams.

Smithenhayes is an attractive, interesting and well-preserved farmhouse.